The Devil's Due
by xRockwriterx
Summary: Alec Lightwood is sent to a Christian boarding school for mislead and troubled teens to sort out all of his "problems". He refuses to change and rebels, all while a relationship blossoms with his new roommate, Magnus Bane. What Alec doesn't know is that the real devil lurks nearer then he first thought and might be the one that saves him. -An AU fanfiction-
1. The Real Devil

**Author's Note**

**I don't really know why I'm writing this- because I have another Malec story going on right now (Storm of Spring; see my other stories) that I should really be putting the majority of my time into- but I've had this idea stuck in my head for days, so I just had to write it down. For now it's a one shot, but if you like it review and maybe I'll continue it. It is definitely open for continuation…**

**Also, understand that I am an atheist, but in this story I am not spreading hate for Christianity or religion. I needed the situations described to push forward the plot. So please accept what I am trying to say to enjoy the story and not look at it as discrimination :) **

**[Break]**

Chapter 1 - The Real Devil

Alec sighed out of pure misery. He had no other choice than to watch the uninteresting landscape outside flash past his eyes as his head began to dip dangerously to the side; sleep tempting him with its outstretched and welcoming hand.

He was in the back seat of a black car and the driver was presumably speeding towards his new school. His parents- both seeking no other option besides the one chosen- had sent him away to this "school". They had been having problems recently with their marriage and they had been stressing about Alec's attitude for the past few weeks. Alec was the only one at home; Isabelle having run away to live with a boyfriend and Jace disappearing into the night as if he were the darkness himself. He tried to keep in touch with Isabelle as much as possible and every now and then he would receive a faint and to the point letter from Jace. Alec sometimes wondered why he hadn't left like his sister and adopted brother had, right now being one of those times.

He didn't know where in the world he was; he didn't know where he was going; he didn't know what would happen. All he knew was that his parents had told him to pack his bags, given him a ride to the airport, and made him get on a plane to California. Once he had gotten there he had immediately been intercepted by the man now driving the car; at the terminal he had practically thrown Alec into the backseat. The driver had confiscated his phone, IPod, and some of his books that he had packed. Alec didn't see why any of this was necessary, but he gave them all up willingly to the man. They were now surrounded by mountains, shrubs, and sand; he didn't even know if they were in California anymore. It had seemed like hours to Alec since he had first arrived at the airport and with nothing to do he was left with his thoughts and the sleep that was calling to him.

Alec knew he couldn't dare to fall asleep, so he had to keep himself awake somehow. Looking over the passenger seat at the driver he noticed the man had black and cleanly cut hair. Dark shades obscured his eyes. A black suit with a crisp emblem of some kind stitched to his breast pocket was clearly visible and Alec wondered what the insignia stood for. Maybe it was the stitch of the school?

Alec couldn't even begin to guess.

They were now going far over the speed limit- if there was a speed limit in the middle of nowhere- in between two large cliffs and Alec looked up to catch a glimmer of what he thought was metal among two rocks, but he didn't know if he had imagined it or not. The car finally began to slow down and they came to a stop next to what looked like a cave holed into the middle of the mountain, the cliffs still towering around them ominously and forming a cavern in which the hole was placed. Alec noticed with shock that dim light was sprouting from the end of the tunnel and a steel door was placed on the far end. At first he didn't know what to do- now that they had stopped- but he soon got a response.

"Get out," the man in the front seat ordered.

Alec did as he was told and the man got out as well. Gripping onto his shoulder in a steel-like grasp he directed Alec into the tunnel and out of the scorching sunlight that had unleashed its wrath on Alec as soon as he stepped out of the car. As he was directed down the tunnel Alec stumbled, trying to keep his raven black hair out of his eyes and carry his belongings over his shoulder while still keeping up with the man's brisk pace. Hauling him through the steel door the man turned sharply and jabbed his finger at a button on one side of the room. Only then did Alec realize this was an elevator they were in and it was gradually rising upward. Alec shuffled anxiously and a slight tremble traveled through his body. An elevator in the middle of a mountain in the middle of nowhere; what the hell was going on? Where had his parents sent him?

The elevator came to a sudden stop after a few seconds, which almost caused Alec to lose his balance and fall against the back wall. Regaining his poise quickly he was startled when the man- without any warning- roughly pushed him against the metal elevator wall. His bags were taken from him and thrown to the floor. Behind Alec's back thin clasps of metal were cuffed around his wrists and they dug into his skin painfully, almost to the point of drawing blood. He was being _handcuffed_. Instantly, Alec was alarmed and on edge.

"What are you-,"

"Shut up!" The man screeched and Alec was pulled back violently from the elevator wall by his hair.

Alec let out a small scream and he saw a cruel smile snake its way across the man's face. His eyes weren't visible through the sunglasses, but Alec thought that if he weren't wearing them his eyes would be dancing with an insane glee, enjoying the sensation of causing Alec pain. The man grasped Alec's hands that were handcuffed behind his back and pushed him forward, into the awaiting doors.

They opened onto rock and more sand, although the sun was shining more so than where they had come in. It glinted off the smooth surface of the rock- almost blinding him. Squinting, Alec looked up to see a raised peak above him, clouds and the sun living in an endless sea of blue around it. Lowering his gaze he figured out they had to be on the cliffs that surrounded the tunnel and road that they had come here on and that the glimpse of metal Alec had seen among the rocks was not his imagination.

A building so large Alec could hardly believe that the mountain supported it laid ahead of them. There had to be at least three floors and Alec wouldn't be surprised if the structure continued underground; they had made an elevator in the middle of a cliff, hadn't they? The ground level windows of the building were tinted while the upper level windows were open, but enclosed by bars. A handful of guards wavered around an entrance point were two fences of razor wire seemed to connect and a small but evident buzz filled the air, alerting Alec to the fact that the fence was electric and would no doubt kill him if he got too close. Alec took a deep gulp of air before a calloused hand pushed painfully into his lower back.

"Walk," the man behind him instructed and Alec complied.

They walked to the gate and Alec saw the man behind him flash a small card; before his head was forced forward and his wandering gaze was broken. Alec saw one of the guards nod and he was shoved vehemently through the opening. The man behind him- even carrying all of Alec's possessions over one shoulder- once again set a vigorous pace across the rock and Alec tried his hardest to keep up. They soon reached what he presumed were the front doors to the "school" and the man opened the door before hurrying him inside.

A labyrinth of hallways greeted them, but the man maneuvered through them with ease. Every hallway was filled with the same doors, the same colorless draping, and the same tedious floor underneath their feet. Everything was plain and uninteresting, lacking of variety or possible interest.

Alec was reminded faintly of a prison.

A door-much larger than the other ones in the passage- loomed up in front of them when they finally stopped. The man uncuffed Alec before he opened the door slightly and pushed Alec through-causing him to stumble- and then turned swiftly on his heel to walk back down the hall, Alec's luggage still over his shoulder. He had not spoken anything else to Alec and he was confused by the lack of communication; it's not like he wanted to talk to the man, but he had pushed him into a random room and left without an explanation. What did he expect Alec to do?

Only then did Alec focus in on the room in front of him. The walls were littered with frozen black and white pictures, certificates, and newspaper clippings. A plant- obviously not watered in a while and seemingly dead- wilted in a corner. Two large windows shown out on the desert from the far side of the room and in front of them loomed a towering book shelf. A desk of polished wood sat in the shadow of the large bookshelf and two fancy-looking chairs stood stiff in front of the desk. A man sat expressionless behind it with his gaze fixated on Alec.

"Come in Alexander- sit down."

Alec didn't want to comply, but he didn't have any other choice. He felt his feet carry him to one of the chairs and he sat down stiffly. This "school" was unlike anything Alec had ever seen and he didn't like the feeling of unease that was creeping up in the pit of his stomach.

"Why am I here?" he suddenly blurted.

A thin smile fell onto the man's face and his eyes sent out a chilling glare from behind his glasses. Alec shuffled anxiously in his chair, the look on the man's face sending Alec into a nervous wreck.

"I think you know why you're here," the man said.

"Because my parents can't deal with their own problems and I was only getting in the way?" Alec replied coldly, getting a sudden surge of courage.

"I would suggest not being a smart-ass during your time at this school. We have very strict rules and I am lenient to when it comes to forms of punishment; it all depends on whoever you manage to piss off and being a smart-ass is one of the many ways to get a severe penalty." The man gave Alec another chilling look and Alec couldn't help the small degree of fear he could feel beginning to rise.

Alec couldn't think of a reply, so all he did was give a simple and solemn nod of his head.

"I am Father Valentine Morgenstern, the principal and preacher of this school," he said, changing the topic. "You are at this school because you are out of control, a burden and risk to the life of your parents and others with your mindless and self-indulgent behavior. From the file I have been sent it seems as though you will be a rather _abnormal _case. Don't expect to be here for a short period of time and if that is what you are already thinking you are thoroughly mistaken."

Alec gulped- what did his parents include in his file? He wasn't out of control, but he had done some stuff his parents didn't necessarily approve of. Was that the real reason why they had sent him here, not only because they wanted to get rid of him while they were dealing with their own problems, but because they thought he was on a path to self destruction?

Alec guessed it was a mix of the two.

"Let's look over your file for a moment, shall we?" Father Morgenstern proclaimed and he gripped the folder that Alec just noticed sat in the middle of the desk.

"Oh, God…" Alec muttered under his breath and squeezed his eyes tightly shut, a hand coming up to stroke at his temple to try and soothe his growing headache. How much did he already know? Alec tried to hope for the best, but was expecting the worst. He knew he would get the very worst anyway-even with all his mindless hoping- but it was worth a shot.

"Your parents first became worried when you began sneaking out; exactly three days after your sister left with her boyfriend. They explained how you would come home smelling like smoke and alcohol, as well as a lingering scent of some cologne or perfume. It is obvious that you were sneaking out to see someone, as well as to smoke and drink."

Alec's eyebrows twisted together; what Father Morgenstern had paraphrased from the file was far from the truth. It is true that he had sneaked out, but it was because with his sister gone he was more lonely than normal. He searched clubs and bars for an easy hook-up when he went out- trying to get rid of that lingering sense of loneliness, if even for an hour or so- but he never touched a single bottle of alcohol and the smoke seemed to cling to his skin. He couldn't help what he smelled like, but he had thought his parents would know better than to come to the conclusion that he was drinking and smoking. They _knew _he would never do that.

"Um, Mister Morgenstern-," he started, trying to explain the situation.

"Hush!" Father Morgenstern growled- cutting Alec off- before giving him a sneer more likely to be on the devil himself then on a crazed school preacher. "You know that what you have done is wrong, so don't even try to make up lies to protect yourself!"

Alec felt his eyes go wide and instead of the fear that had been rising since he stepped into the room rage started to boil. He was restraining himself from screaming at his new principal and he clung onto the chair he was sitting in as his knuckles went white and his whole body tensed. His apparent body language seemed to have no effect on the man in front of him, the crazed sneer still on his face and very evident.

"Besides the smoking and drinking," he continued unfazed, "your parents also reported how they worried about your well-being after they walked in on you having _relations_ with another male. They were deeply concerned about the turn of events this situation alluded to and they thought that sending you to this school- it being very prestigious and a religious symbol- would be able to _straighten _you out," he said with a cruel smile.

Alec huffed at the man's ignorance. It's not like anyone could _stop_ him from being gay; it wasn't possible. It was true that he hadn't "come out" to his parents, instead telling them by being caught in bed with his ex-boyfriend. It definitely wasn't the chosen way he had wanted to tell them, but he guessed that in the end the reaction wouldn't have been that much different. They had kicked out his boyfriend and told Alec to get his head out of the gutter and get a _real _relationship. At the time it was degrading and the worst part was that they thought it was a phase. It was like every gay teenagers nightmare; he wasn't accepted by his own parents who should've lovedhim unconditionally. It had almost been the last straw for Alec- he had planned on leaving the next day- but somehow he was pulled back, knowing he couldn't live on his own for that long all by himself. Now Alec wished he would have left because then he wouldn't be in this situation right now.

"You aren't going to be able to 'straighten' me out, you know," Alec growled, baby blue eyes now aflame with a burning anger. "I won't change for anything, even if you try to make me."

"Then you will stay here for a very, _very_, long time, Alexander Lightwood. With the contract your parents signed we _guaranteed _that their son would come home with new morals and a better outlook on life, as well as being an exceedingly religious young man. That is what your parents want and if you ever plan on getting out of this school with top marks I would suggest you listen and change for the better while you are here."

Alec couldn't believe this; that is what he was here for? His parents wanted these people to change who he was – it wasn't even possible! Did they expect them to keep him here until they eventually 'straightened' him out, like Father Morgenstern had said? He couldn't bear those thoughts; what if they actually made him stay here forever?

"You can't keep me here over the age of eighteen. I'm an adult then and I'll be eighteen in a year and a half. I can bare your school for that long, I don't care," Alec said, but he could hear the strain and shaking in his own voice.

"Our school is special; it was originally a _luxury _prison, but it has been transformed into a boarding school or even a 'boot camp' of sorts; it can really go either way. We take boys of all ages and since we promise to create a better child we take all the time we need. This school has a small amount of students that are far past the adult range, some going into their twenties. We just don't have that many because by then most students have smartened up enough to know that to get out they must change their ways. That is how this school works," Father Morgenstern explained.

Alec felt his heart drop into his stomach with the Father's words; he couldn't stay here forever, he _wouldn't _stay here forever.

But what other choice did he have?

"None," replied father.

_Shit, I said that out loud,_ Alec thought before he mentally punched himself for being so stupid.

He was cornered now with no other place to go. Getting out with his inner-self still intact seemed like an impossible feat and escape was even more unattainable. The guards here were fierce and no doubt would be watching them like hawks. The idea of his parents actually getting emotions called _understanding _and _sympathy_ was far out of the equation, so the thought of them taking him out of this "school" was another definite improbability. Changing himself seemed like the only way out and Alec hated his life right now more than ever before. Why did he have to have parents with stupid problems and failing skills of understanding?

Father Morgenstern watched Alec's facial expressions go from hopeful, to discouraged, and finally to utter defeat as he saw the thoughts whirl through the teenager's mind. Father Morgenstern felt he didn't even need to continue on with the contents of Alec's file; Alec already knew that he was trapped. That was one of the tactics of reading the file out-loud to the student; to show how much power they had over them now by knowing basically everything about their pasts and about their lives. Morgenstern had Alec in the palm of his hand and Alec had realized it. Hopefully, that meant he did not have the potential to be a big difficulty for his school. Homosexuals had always been the downfall for the school; they couldn't be taken down. It had run on his nerves for a while and that annoyance still somewhat existed. With any luck Alexander wouldn't be like the _others_, a particular student already coming to mind.

"With that said I think we are done here. There is more to your file, but that doesn't have to particularly be discussed. I encourage you to remember; I know just about everything about you, so don't even bring yourself to the illusion that you have any privacy. This file had very detailed descriptions and every guard and worker in this school is always on the top of their game and looking out for anything suspicious or interesting about your life here. We will know in only a few weeks how we intend to use the information that we have to change and _encourage _you to become the better person that both we and your parents are hoping for."

Alec swallowed, but didn't say anything.

"Now, I think it is about time to inform you about classes and also about your roommate," he went on to explain.

At this statement Alec sternly raised his gaze to finally look the man in the eyes, as if to say "_Are you serious? Some people in this "school" might actually have deeper problems and could try to kill me in my sleep. You're telling me I have to share a room with one?"_

"Unfortunately, we can't put you with a student much older than yourself for obvious reasons; you'll be rooming with a student who has been here quite a while and is a little closer to your age. It also happens to be the only room open and the only possibility for you to dwell in for a long period of time. Your schedule will be on top of the nightstand in your room and Ralph will lead you there when you exit. He has already brought your possessions up to where you will be living for the next couple years- or more if you so choose, it's really all up to you and your decisions."

Alec guessed Ralph was the man that had come and gotten him from the airport, handcuffed him, and also led him here from where they entered the school. Talking anymore to Father Morgenstern he knew was worthless and a waste of his time because he knew that he wouldn't win any argument or fight for himself and his rights. Like before he simply nodded before he rose from his chair and exited the room. He heard Father Morgenstern open something- a book or a laptop, maybe- but he didn't hear anything else muttered from his new principal.

Once he was in the hallway Alec saw the man with black hair from before- Ralph- and he didn't fight when Ralph took Alec's arm and twisted it behind his back roughly before leading him back down the passage. Alec recognized the hallways they traveled through from before and he mapped out the roadway of passages in his head, out of habit. He noticed how instead of continuing forward to the foyer of the school they instead took a right down an even longer hallway. At the end stairs awaited them and they climbed onto the third floor. Doors upon doors stood in front of them and they walked to the very far end. Looking out a high window Alec could only see sky and the raised peak of the mountain in the distance. Ralph grabbed his neck violently-nearly snapping it- before he was turned to a nearby door. The man definitely wasn't a man of words; Alec guessed he was more of an actions type of guy. Before Alec knew what was happening he was once again shoved into a room completely alien to him. Only this time he heard a slight _click,_ and when his curiosity got the best of him and he tried the doorknob he found it to be locked.

"They're tight on security; you better get used to it," a voice mocked.

Alec whirled-almost giving himself whiplash- to stare at the boy who had spoken.

He had to be the most beautiful male Alec had ever seen. It seemed like his hair was as dark as night and spikes were styled up and colored at the tips with a deep bluish-green tint. He was thin and obviously tall, his legs dangling off of the end of the small bed that he was laying on. Strong looking arms were crossed behind his neck. The male's face had to be the most beautiful of all to Alec; high cheekbones and smooth caramel colored skin outlined his features and eyes with a slight curve gave an indication to his obvious Asian background. His eyes- around which were smeared with eyeliner- were a golden green color and popped because of the added make-up. Those eyes were glaring at him curiously with a slight hint of amusement.

"I'm guessing you're my new roommate?" Alec said hesitantly, not really coming across a way to talk to the stunning male in front of him without making a fool of himself.

"No; of course not," the boy once again mocked, voice full of sarcasm. "Old Ralph must've gotten it mixed up again."

"Old Ralph? He didn't seem aged all that bad and by the way he twisted my arm behind my back I highly doubt that he's _that _old," Alec questioned before looking around and taking a tentative step into the room.

One bed sat vacant on the opposite side of the small room with Alec's belongings sitting on stiff looking bed sheets. A small nightstand was close by- his schedule resting upon it like Father Morgenstern had said- and a dresser was situated right in front of the end of the rigid excuse for a bed. The male's side of the room- on the other hand- was a splash of color, the most color Alec had seen in a long while to be specific. Posters covered the wall on his side and articles of clothing were thrown about everywhere he looked. Somehow a different bedspread then the one on the other bed in the room was positioned over the bed frame and pillows that Alec had to admit looked _very _comfortable were littered over the canary yellow sheets. Stacks of books were piled on the nightstand, as well as a few notebooks that looked well-used.

The male noticed Alec looking over the room in front of him and a small grin appeared on his face.

"Old Ralph- we call him that because he has about as much power as an elderly person and he's about as dumb as one, too. He can twist up your arm pretty bad and threaten, but he's all bark and no bite; he won't really hurt you. He's also easy to manipulate. You promise him something he wants and he'll do anything for you," he explained to Alec and his eyes measured him up as he did so.

Alec shuffled on his feet slightly, getting shy under the male's gaze.

"Um, I'm Alec by the way… Alexander Lightwood," Alec murmured shyly with his eyes cast downward, hoping that it would get the male to stop looking at him.

"Magnus Bane," the male said as he rose and extended his hand to Alec in a friendly handshake, his stare thankfully snapping back up to Alec's face as a genuine smile fell onto his beautiful features.

Alec took it and shook- Magnus's hand smooth and almost reassuring around his.

"Just don't get into _too_ much trouble here," Magnus said with a smirk and a sexy wink, releasing Alec's hand after a few moments before he turned to flop back onto the sheets of his bed.

"Why not?" Alec questioned as he walked over to his own side of the room and began to unpack, more relaxed now that a formal greeting had been shared with Magnus.

"The rest of the guards- besides Old Ralph and a few others, of course- can get pretty violent if they get agitated. It would be best for you to keep on people's good sides while you're here."

Alec sighed as he finished removing the few items he had in his bag, placing the clothes in the dresser and his books inside of the nightstand.

"I don't think that will work for me."

Magnus sent Alec a cunning look as he raised an eyebrow, obviously more intrigued then before.

"And why is that? Why do you think it will be hard to keep on people's good sides?" He asked with an already knowing look on his face.

"I won't change for them; they'll have to keep me here forever. I want to get out as soon as possible, but I don't think that will happen," Alec told him, another sigh of frustration leaving his lips as he flopped down- just as Magnus had- on his own bed.

"Well, I don't think you're the only one who won't change for anyone. I'm friends with some of the other teenagers here. I don't think they'll change either, even if it does mean getting out. Why won't you change for them if you don't mind me asking?"

"Because it's not possible," Alec murmured before he turned onto his side and away from Magnus. He wasn't really enjoying this conversation anymore now that they were getting onto the topic of why he was here.

"Why isn't it possible?"

"You ask a lot of 'why' questions, don't you?" Alec said with a hint of amusement.

"And I'm asking you another one," Magnus replied sternly, a new hardness in his voice.

Alec opened his eyes fully from where they were beginning to close sleepily at the tone of Magnus's voice. He wasn't afraid of Magnus- _not yet_, anyway- but he heard in that voice how Magnus had survived here so long without going insane. Now that he thought of it, he didn't even know how long Magnus had been at this school.

"How long have you been here?" Alec asked, avoiding the previous question with a new one.

"Five years; I came here when I was fourteen. Stop evading the question," he growled.

Alec rolled back over to face him, only to find Magnus sitting with one leg over the other with his gaze intent on Alec. Groaning, Alec saw that Magnus wasn't going to leave him alone until he told him, so he let it rush out in a flood of words.

"I don't believe in God, I sneak out all the time, I was always a nuisance to my parents, and I'm-" he stopped his sudden rambling before he told Magnus he was gay. What if he was homophobic?

"_And?"_ Magnus implored, as if he sensed the hesitance in Alec's voice.

"I'm gay," Alec whispered and cast his head downward, away from Magnus's stare.

Silence fell over the small room and Alec didn't have the bravery to look up and catch Magnus's eyes again. What was he thinking? What Alec had said was sort of a big thing for him; it was one of the first times he had said outright that he was gay. His parents had assumed and known once they found him in bed with his ex-boyfriend and the other men at bars knew because Alec would come on to them. Admitting it to Magnus felt like something different; as if an unseen weight had been lifted off of him. It felt good to admit, but he was now waiting for Magnus's reply. He had some guesses about Magnus- because of the make-up, tight clothing, and bursts of color all around the room- but Alec wasn't in the position to be making assumptions.

"Then I guess we have a lot in common," Magnus finally replied.

Alec didn't hear or see him until he was on him, but Alec was jerked out of his frozen state when Magnus was suddenly holding him down with his body weight on top of Alec's thighs and chest. He didn't have any time at all to move and before Alec knew what was happening Magnus had Alec's hands pinned above his head. All ability to move left Alec and he didn't know if it was because of fear or because he was being held down so tightly. Only when he felt the hot breath of Magnus against his ear did Alec somewhat calm down.

"Listen to me," he whispered harshly into Alec's ear, "you are going to go through a lot of hell in this school from what you have admitted to me. I've been here for five years and refused to change. I'm respected by the other teenagers here, but by the staff even _I _will admit that I am the most hated student. This school guarantees that the student will be changed; come out religious and better then before. You reject that and they will take severe actions because the longer you stay here the more the parents have to pay. The more the parents have to pay the more they get fed up. I know it's probably not going to happen, but my way out is that my parents finally lose hope. Stop paying and kick me out when I get home. _That's _what I'm hoping for. But it means I have to stay focused and rebellious to keep my sanity and go through torture to do so. I think you have a chance and I think you may be able to make it; all you have to do is stay be me."

Alec was breathing rapidly, both from what Magnus had just told him and also from the fact that they were so close. He chose to ignore the last part as much as possible, opting to question Magnus.

"How can you stay here and not submit after _five_ years? I've barely been here a day and I can't stand it... and why do you have to be so close to me to say that?" Alec hissed out to the man on top of him.

"You have to look forward to the future; hold onto the thoughts of what will happen if you _do _surrender and then what life will be like when you get out of here if you _don't_. That's all you can do and I need to be this close to you because I want you to listen to me. There's also the tiny fact that there are guards all throughout that hallway outside and they can practically hear everything we say if we don't whisper it. I don't want them to hear me giving instructions to you and feeding to you the idea of freedom as you are without change. They would go crazy and move you to a different room. I have a feeling they didn't like the idea of putting you- another gay and atheist teenage boy- in a room with me, but I doubt there were any other options besides putting you in a room with a twenty year old," he explained before pulling away from Alec.

Alec sighed and relaxed more, fully understanding what Magnus was trying to say. He couldn't deny that if he did stay by Magnus that he would have a good chance of keeping his sanity while he lived here. The feeling that Magnus wasn't lying and that his time here would be hell was finally sinking into his mind and he knew that he would have to listen and obey Magnus if he ever wanted even the hope of getting out.

"I'll listen to you, Magnus; I just want to get out of here," Alec finally whimpered and he hated the unmanly sound escaping from his mouth. He saw Magnus's face soften above him- sympathy evident in his expression- before Magnus's face came down, this time laying a line of chaste kisses to Alec's exposed throat. Alec's breathing hitched, but Magnus pulled away after a few seconds of soft caresses. He caught Alec's gaze before he leaned down to whisper into his ear again.

"I know you do, Alec; stick by me and soon enough you'll have respect and it won't be that bad. I've gone through hell already in this school and I'm not afraid of it, not anymore. They say that this school turns out changed teenagers, but I'm planning on being the broken case- the abomination- of this whole fucking program. I won't change for them and even though they may try it won't make a difference. That is why they hate me; they see that I won't change. This school is about making teenagers religious, as much as it is supposed to be changing 'bad' behavior for the better. But I know something they don't. I know that they just might be figuring it out now, but they don't know the whole truth. That is what makes them so pissed off-why they hate me so much," he said under his breath, "Can you guess what that reason is, Alexander?"

Alec fidgeted under Magnus.

"I have no idea," he breathed, seeing Magnus shift even closer to him.

Alec let out a small gasp when teeth came down on the ear that Magnus had been whispering into and pain as well as pleasure shot through Alec. Magnus licked over the sensitive spot-soothing it-and Alec couldn't hold in the small sigh of satisfaction that escaped from his very lips.

"I'm the _real _Devil, here."

**[Break] **

**So, how was it? I'm open to continue this; I just want to know what you all think. I'm still working hard on Storm of Spring and I'm thinking about making another story/ do some one shots for other series. Review please so I know where to put my priorities! **

**~Rockwriter **


	2. Fearless

**Author's Note**

**I've officially decided to continue this story and hopefully you will enjoy where I am taking it. Now that I've decided to continue it, I should probably describe the rating. This fanfiction is rated M for some violence, situations, swearing, and maleXmale content. I'll admit it that I'll probably chicken out on writing smut, but if you stay around you might get the reward of reading my first smut scene. Even if I don't write it, I'll still get pretty close **_**for sure**_**, hence the M rating for maleXmale content. **

**Also, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter out, but I wanted to make it perfect and I also had a week long hiatus where I was unable to write at all. Hopefully this chapter will live up to expectations as well as answer a few questions some of you are wondering. **

**[Break] **

Chapter 2 -Fearless

Rough yells and voices awoke Alec and for a split-second he couldn't quite remember where he was. Only when the soft breathing of Magnus over the voices coming from the hall befell his ears did he figure out that he was still at this "school" that he had been sent to. He groaned- still incredibly tired and also frustrated by the fact that this was the first day in a long line of tortuous days at this school- before he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Alec couldn't help but realize that there was no light coming from the window situated high on the wall above him and Magnus wasn't fazed by the commotion going on close by. Slipping from under his sheets Alec walked on quiet feet over to where Magnus was laying, unmoving. His eyes were closed and his breaths were even and shallow. Alec found himself admiring Magnus- if only for a few seconds- before he was pulled back to reality by a harsh bang on their door, causing Alec to jump.

"Get up and ready for debrief! We're coming in there in ten minutes. Any transgressions and there will be punishment!" A voice grunted from the other side of the wood.

Alec panicked for a few seconds before he rushed to Magnus's side. At the moment Magnus was the only reassurance he had and the only form of information he could get; Magnus would know what was going on and would be able to calm his alarmed and racing heart.

"Magnus," Alec hissed while he leaned close, remembering that the people outside could hear any conversation above a whisper, "Wake up! The guards are going around waking everyone up. What are they doing? What's debriefing? Help me here, I'm panicking!"

"Cool your tits, Alec," Magnus finally replied after about a minute, eyes still closed. "They're waking us up for the day; debriefing is where they come in and check the rooms- as well as us- before we are given special orders if there are any and then sent to classes and crap," he said lazily.

"Then why aren't you getting up? They'll be in here in ten minutes!" Alec yelled, still terrified.

From Alec's position- leaning over Magnus- he was surprised when an arm was suddenly wrapped around his neck, hauling him down and onto the bed beside Magnus. A finger was on Alec's lips before he could speak and Magnus turned him to face him. Golden-green eyes bore into his blue ones, seeming to glow in the darkness in front of him.

"Just because you are a newbie I am not going to wake up to this every single morning," he growled. "They are going to come in here to check our stuff to see that we don't have anything dangerous in here or on us that we could use against guards or other students. They will then push us out into the hall, where we will stand and wait for Mr. Morgenstern to deliver our daily 'pep talk', as I like to call it. This is the beginning of our day, everyday; I'd suggest getting used to it. Do you understand?"

Magnus's finger was still on his lips, so Alec could only nod.

"Good; now breathe. You'll give yourself a heart attack if you don't calm down soon," he ordered, before he was rolling out of bed on his side, leaving Alec lying there.

Alec did as he was told, knowing Magnus was right. He couldn't lose his head while he was here; if he was going to get out with sanity intact he had to begin to keep his cool and listen to what Magnus was telling him. As long as Magnus was giving him guidance Alec had a feeling he would learn the ways of this school quickly, because that is what he really needed; guidance. He hated though that that meant that he would have to follow Magnus around like a lost pup (which Alec had a feeling Magnus wouldn't be so fond of). Magnus had seemed nice enough last night, but then again that was about the only example Alec was going on.

Light suddenly exploded into the room and Alec let out a whimper before covering his eyes quickly with his arm. When he finally got used to the unexpected light he let the limb lower, to see Magnus giving him a small smirk from his place by his dresser, his hand still paused in midair from where he had turned on the light. He was giving Alec an amused type of smirk and only then did Alec realize that he was still tangled in the sheets of Magnus's bed. Alec's cheeks heated and colored, but he ducked his head before climbing out of the bed and striding to his own side of the room. He stood there awkwardly as Magnus began to get dressed, nightshirt falling to the ground as Alec tried desperately to avoid staring. This hadn't been a problem last night because Alec had fallen asleep in the clothes he wore yesterday and Magnus had gotten into the clothes that he slept in after Alec was already sleeping. Now, Magnus was undressing right in front of him and Alec was expected to do the same. He wasn't necessarily OK with the idea, but he figured he really had no other choice.

"Are you going to change or not? They expect you to at least wear something that you can work in everyday, being that one of the many things we need to do here is PL- physical labor. I'd suggest that you get into something more… _acceptable_ for the job."

Alec saw that Magnus had changed into dark shorts and an even darker tank-top that sagged on his tiny- but still quite muscular- frame. It was already surprising to see Magnus in anything but colorful jeans and tops, but even when his obvious style was toned down he was able to pull off a fashionable look with ease. Splashes of color through a couple multicolored bracelets and bright shoes contrasted with the dark of his clothing and he was working on styling his hair, which Alec had no idea how it would stay together through and during 'physical labor'. The tips were still dyed a bluish-green and he was spiking it up in multiple areas, giving him the look of a hedgehog. Alec couldn't help but admire the look; he was learning quickly that Magnus could make almost anything work.

"Um… I'll just do that," Alec murmured and removed a similar clothing choice from his own dresser. He proceeded to put it on and he stuffed his schedule into his pocket once he had his jeans buttoned. He did not dare to look up once, in fear that Magnus would be watching him. When he was finished he glanced over, not knowing if he was relieved or oddly disappointed that Magnus wasn't focused on him. He was instead spreading something around his eyes, his lips already glossed from the tube that rested on top of his dresser. Once he was done with the item in his hand- which Alec thought looked a lot like a black colored pencil- Magnus took both of the objects sitting on the dresser before he opened a drawer completely, hiding them on the hinges of the rollers that allowed the drawers to be pulled out or pushed in. Alec's eyes watched questionably, but he didn't ask Magnus why he was hiding them.

"They don't like that I wear make-up," Magnus said, as if reading Alec's mind. "They think that me having it empowers my gayness, or something like that." He then paused for a moment, as if thinking.

"I also wouldn't put it past them to deem eyeliner and lip-gloss as possible weapons, if they really wanted to go to those lengths," he said with a chuckle as he walked over and started straightening out the sheets on his bed, making it look presentable.

"What do they think you could do; gouge their eyes out with eyeliner or gloss them to death?" Alec joked- sarcasm fully intended- as he went and followed Magnus's example.

An amused look crossed Magnus's face as he looked up at him from where he was rolling and smoothing the covers of his bed. Alec couldn't help but think that the emotion brought a new light to Magnus; his face seemed to glow and his smile was glorious. Alec knew he was now feeding to the raw sensations and emotions he was beginning to feel for the male, but he couldn't find the control within himself to stop. Realizing he was staring at Magnus for far too long he averted his eyes after a moment, going back to making his bed.

A loud and ominous knocking filled the room, three ringing out with a second of rest in between them. Alec jerked up with alarm- his whole body tensed- but he was eased when Magnus gave him a small nod of reassurance and a whispered exclamation to follow him. Doing as he was told, Alec pursued Magnus who led them to stand up against the wall closest to the door.

"Stand still; feet apart and hands against the wall. They will come in and check us, but they won't hurt you- not yet at least. You're a newbie, so you're fresh meat; they're just waiting to pound on you. They aren't low enough to beat you for no reason, but even the smallest indication that you deserve it and they'll be on you," Magnus told him sternly, suddenly turning serious for the few moments that it took for him to give Alec the warning. Afterwards, he seemed to go back to his normal self, staring at the wall he already had his hands up against and putting on a bored expression.

Alec gulped at the thought of being beaten, but was thankful for the warning and nodded before placing his hands against the wall in front of him.

**[Break]**

They did not have to wait long before keys turning in a lock alerted them to the fact someone was coming into their room. Alec tensed up again, but when Magnus sent a glare in his direction he forced himself to relax. He didn't want to get beaten, especially in front of Magnus.

The guard who entered through the door was not Ralph and it was obvious that he wasn't as tolerant as the other was said to be. He had shortly cut brown hair and a hard looking face, his cheek bones defined. He had to be very strong- Alec guessed- for the muscles in his arms and legs seemed to be unnaturally large. The only slightly normal thing about the guard was that he had on what looked like reading glasses instead of the standard black shades. Through them hazel eyes portrayed that the guard was all business and Alec immediately seemed to cower under his gaze.

"Stand up straight!" he barked.

Alec corrected himself. He soon felt hands patting down his legs, checking his jean pockets as well as the insides of his shoes. The guard took out his schedule when he got to it and paused- as if reading it- before putting it back. He then continued patting Alec down until he moved over to Magnus and did the same thing. Magnus wasn't hiding anything and he didn't seem to have any items in his pockets, but when it came to the colored bracelets the guards eyes narrowed and glared at Magnus.

"What are those?" the man snapped.

"Bracelets," Magnus replied simply.

"Take them off," the guard hissed.

"Not likely to happen, Mr. Wallaby," Magnus said with a smirk, knowing the nickname would piss off the guard.

The echo of the slap surprised Alec and before he knew what was happening Magnus was squished against the wall, the guard twisting both arms painfully behind his back. It was obvious the restraint put Magnus in agony, his face contorting against the wall as he held in a scream. Alec- after snapping out of his daze- surged forward to help him, but the guard sent a snarl in his direction to stay away and Alec felt his feet stop immediately, as well as take a step back in fear. The guard forcibly removed the bracelets from Magnus before shoving him towards the door, making him fall and almost face plant into the cement floor. Alec saw his wrist go in a painful direction, but Magnus was on his feet in seconds with a glare cold as ice directed at the guard.

"Get in the hallway, now!" The guard screeched as he came up to both of them and grabbed their wrists before practically throwing them into the hall.

Alec stared in amazement as he regained his surroundings once he was outside of their room. All the way down to the very end of the hallway by the stairs other teenagers were lined up. Many looked older, but a few looked as if they were barely fourteen. Two boys standing across from Alec and Magnus were eyeing Alec, as if sizing up the new arrival at the school. They both stood on opposite sides of the door, hands locked behind their backs and their postures straight and tall. After they had finished gazing at Alec they resumed staring in front of them, not focusing on anything. Alec finally noticed that this is how everyone down the hall were standing and he quickly stepped to the side, becoming parallel with Magnus and also copying the stances of the boys on the other side of the hall. It was his first day here and he didn't plan on getting in trouble for being out of line.

The doors of all the rooms were open and Alec could hear bangs as well as drawers being opened coming from every room. Guards were really going through everything; it was true when Valentine said he would barely have any privacy while he was here. He could hear the same process going on in his and Magnus's room, drawers opening and closing as well as ruffles and pounds- it was as if they were literally tearing apart the room.

Most of the guards came out of the rooms gradually to stand behind the students on both sides of the doorway. Their eyes roamed over the hall like hawks, watching for any sign of displacement or wrongdoings. Alec hardly dared to breath, knowing that the guard that had slapped Magnus stood behind them. He didn't want to get hurt and he also didn't want anymore pain to befall Magnus. Sneaking a gaze over to his right he was surprised to see that Magnus was calm, no reminisce of the encounter with the guard remaining. A small red print was still on his cheek, but he was ignoring it. His eyes were fixed forward and serious and Alec was starting to admire how he was standing so tall and fearless in front of these guards. He had to admit to himself that he was scared shitless, even while Magnus stood so close and was the complete opposite.

"I trust that no items were found in searching?" a voice drawled from the end of the hallway.

Father Morgenstern was standing at the top of the steps in a crisp suit, as well as a walking cane in right hand. He had that chilled look in his eyes again, staring at the boys that lined the hallway with an almost predatory gaze. No one was moving or even breathing as far as Alec could tell. They were all like stone statues; not daring to make eye contact or even let out a single breath.

It was so silent that Alec swore he felt the very air around him move when the guard behind them walked forward and threw the bracelets Magnus had been wearing onto the floor in front of them.

The steps of Father Morgenstern- along with the clanking of his cane against the floor- seemed like they were the indications to Magnus's awaiting doom, slowly crawling closer and closer to where he and Alec stood. Alec sucked in a breath, not knowing what was going to happen.

Alec cast his eyes downward as Valentine came to a stop in front of them. He once again glanced over at Magnus, who he saw was staring Valentine straight in the eye, not even twitching under the man's overpowering gaze. Although, Alec could see that Magnus's hands were twisted into fists behind his back and his whole body was stiff and tensed.

"What is this, Magnus?" Father Morgenstern seemed to growl, using the tip of his cane to point at the bracelets on the floor.

"Nothing, as far as I can see- It's not like I can kill someone with a few colored accessories," Magnus replied calmly. Alec could see the other boys and guards in the hallway watching them with interest, as if it was amusing to watch the confrontation between Valentine and Magnus.

"We don't want you wearing them, that should've been enough reason for you not to have them," Father Morgenstern retorted, before really giving Magnus a harder look. "And what is on your face?"

"Oh, you know- skin, lips, eyes, and a nose-"

"I meant what is around your eyes!" Valentine spat, eyes narrowing as if he was quickly losing patience with Magnus.

"I do believe it is a powdered base material, to be specific," Magnus told him.

"You mean _make-up_ or _eyeliner_, don't you, Magnus?"

Alec saw Magnus seem to contemplate whether or not he would agree, but after a moment his gaze hardened and he raised his chin defiantly.

"Of course not," Magnus lied.

_What is the use of lying?_ Alec thought to himself, looking at Magnus as if he were insane.

It was obvious that Magnus _was_ wearing make-up, so why was he denying it and angering Valentine and the guards more than they already were? Suddenly, the answer came to him, coming from the conversation he had had with Magnus last night.

"_I have to stay focused and rebellious to keep my sanity and go through torture to do so."_

_Rebellion- _that was the reason why Magnus was doing what he was doing, lying and refusing to give Valentine any sense of achievement or control. He was showing that he wouldn't let Valentine or anyone else get to him, wouldn't let them change him. Is this what he had been doing for the last five years, defying them with all of his very being? No wonder he was the most hated student here.

"_You're a liar," _Valentine snarled, his face warping into a mask of pure hatred- hatred at Magnus.

The guard that had been standing in the doorway was behind Magnus in a flash, restraining him similar to before, but this time Magnus didn't let any sign of pain make its way to his face. He stared ahead of him and did not make eye contact anymore with Valentine. Instead of looking like a clear example of submission he turned it into a mocking motion, as if Valentine no longer deserved his full attention.

"Was there any make-up found in searching?" Valentine barked at the guard holding Magnus.

"No, Sir," The guard told him, shaking his head.

"So you're hiding it." Valentine concluded, sneering down at Magnus who had fallen to his knees on the cement floor, not able to hold himself up correctly because of how hard the guard was putting strain on his back and shoulders.

Magnus didn't answer him, his mouth in a tight line on his face and his gaze fixed on the floor.

"Take him to Isolation; we'll get it out of him eventually," Valentine proceeded, knowing Magnus wasn't going to talk anymore.

The guard lifted Magnus off of his knees with a grunt before digging a hand into Magnus's back and pushing him forward. Alec couldn't even begin to describe the emotions he felt as the guard hauled Magnus away. He watched as Magnus and the guard passed the rows of boys on each side of the hallway before he led Magnus to the stairs and eventually out of sight. As they had passed Alec noticed how none of the boys seemed fazed, as if this was an everyday occurrence. He couldn't help but imagine that this is what Magnus is always like, defying and angering the staff continuously with his acts of rebellion.

Alec felt the small smile that crept onto his face. At this point in time he should've been worried about Magnus and about what was going to happen to him, as well as what Father Morgenstern meant by sending him to Isolation.

But for some reason he didn't worry; he knew that whatever they were going to throw at him he could take it. In the small amount of time that Alec had known him he could see that Magnus was brave, but also why he could be so respected by some of the other boys here.

"As for the talk I had planned out for this morning I think a change is in order. That change is the topic of the discussion for today. All of you remember the three words of our school, don't you?" Father Morgenstern suddenly yelled, spinning on his heel away from where he had still been facing Alec to begin to pace up and down the hall.

Every boy nodded, although no one said a word to answer the question.

"Respect- Faith- Wellbeing; those are the three things that we promise you will learn here at this school," Valentine began while twirling his cane lazily, all traces of anger towards Magnus gone from his face. "You will turn away your wrongdoings of the past and change into better people. The people you turn out to be will be the people that you want for your lives- people that will be well adapted and resourceful benefits for society. The lives that you had before will no longer exist after this and through faith with God and respect for the older people of your lives who will give you guidance you will find yourself on a better path to find your true meaning, as well as to become who you are supposed to be. The troubles of before were sidetracks and distractions; we will help to get you back on the path you were supposed to be on since childhood. I think that this is important to point out, for we have a new teenager among us and I think it is important that he understands that we are not evil. We are simply people here to help. I'm sure everybody else here has finally come to that realization," he finished, coming to a stop at the top of the stairs at the end of the hallway.

A couple teenagers looked up- some with expressions of agreeing, others boarding on disgust mixed with "_Remind me what this guy is smoking again?" _facial expressions- but once again, no one spoke.

"And realization of the facts is sometimes the only way to get someone to fully understand the need for change," Valentine added darkly after a minute of silence, sending a glare in Alec's general direction.

Alec couldn't help but gulp, not knowing at all what Valentine could possibly mean by the statement that he had an eerie feeling was directed specifically at him. Without Magnus by his side he felt alone and lost, but he figured he at least needed to get through the day without getting into trouble or making a fool of himself. He took a calming breath, closing his eyes briefly.

He would get through his first day at this school, with or without Magnus.

"With that final note, it is about time for classes," Valentine said sternly before turning swiftly and heading down the stairs. With his sudden exit it was obvious to Alec that the man was still angry. Magnus had obviously gotten on his nerves, and Alec couldn't help but feel an odd surge of pride; he was glad that Magnus was the one that was going to be his roommate and mentor at this school, even if Alec was going to go through the first day without him.

The guards lined all of the teenagers up shortly after Father Morgenstern's disappearance. Alec was the very last and behind the two boys in the room across from him and Magnus. Two guards flanked both of Alec's sides behind him and he had to force himself to take another deep breath before they started to descend the stairs to classes.

**[Break] **

**I planned to have the classes in this chapter, but I decided to split it up because it would be way to long as well as the fact that I need to do some research for the next chapter. I've read a few books about boot camps and places like the boot camp/ boarding school I am trying to build in this story, but I guess I want to get some more understanding about it all before I write the next chapter. **

**Also- don't worry- MAGNUS WILL BE BACK IN THE STORY SHORTLY (I just needed that scene to build more of his character as well as for a scene coming up that will explain a lot more about the school and just how cruel it can be.) **

**Thank you for all the favorites, story alerts, and reviews I've gotten on this story! I honestly didn't expect it to be that great, since it was just something I decided to write down one day without really thinking. Special thanks to the reviewers though- **

**[To Skittelstalker242 **

_Thank you for your kind words and yes, I do plan to update as soon as I can for all chapters I work on. Some might take longer then others, but as long as people want to read this story I'll work on it. _

**[To Malec-love **

_(sorry that I had to change the undercase letter and the period in your pen name, but for some reason Doc Manager kept deleting your name when I tried to save...) _

_I do agree that the ending of chapter one was epic; I needed to get some good Malec magic into the story for a sort of promise of what could be ahead ;) _

**[To ClairelovesMalec**

_I love that you reviewed my story; it's great that you noticed particular ideas and details about the characters and setting that I was trying hard to work on. I really enjoy your writings such as Technicalities and One Day? Try One Week! I look up to you as a writer and it's great that you reviewed one of my stories :D_

**[To alicelightwoodbane**

_I'm planning on bringing a lot to this story, so hopefully me continuing it will live up to your expectations. _

**[To SecretlyANinja98**

_Very, very, nice review SecretlyANinja98. I love that you took the time to type out what you really thought about my story and I definitely used the things you mentioned to improve some details in this chapter as well as others. I think that the environment in this story adds a lot to just how much Alec will need to go through in the future and I needed to make sure it was very secluded and strict. I first began thinking about this idea while I was reading _Boot Camp _by Todd Strasser and I took a lot of the facts about boot camps and how they are set up in the United States from the book as well as others like it. I'm sort of putting Alec and Magnus in a similar situation and I'm using those tidbits of information I found to sort of give this story the full effect. I plan to try and explain it more as well as give more background information as the story progresses :) _

**[To HikariMelody**

_Thanks for the review and it is true that I am sort of putting Alec's parents in an ill light for this story (Even though I have nothing against Maryse; I actually quite like her character in the series). And I feel the same way about straight camps :( They do really exist and since I've already started researching for the next chapter I have actually had to look up things about some of these straight camps. I couldn't really find much at first, but once I did I'll admit that what I found was very disturbing. I'm actually struggling with my sexuality at the moment and I think because of that I found that the tactics and classes at these 'straight' camps were even more inhumane and cruel than I would've first thought, sometimes so much that I actually had to log off of my computer because it disturbed me so much. I agree that they should be illegal and non-existent, your "an Asian can't stop being Asian" example being a very good point. If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, pansexual, or asexual, you can't just CHANGE who you are. It is a part life that should be accepted and embraced by both the individual and by friends and family. I actually sort of hate myself for putting Alec in such a situation, but I really think that having such circumstances will bring more of a plot, as well as reason behind what will happen in following chapters. _

**[To JessiRocks95**

_Thank you for commenting and I hope you're pleased that I decided to continue this and that I'm planning on making more chapters! :) _

**Don't forget to review for this chapter and if anyone really wants it I've been thinking about linking my Tumblr to my fanfiction profile. If you think I should, just send a message to me to help me decide! **

**~Rockwriter **


	3. Others

**Author's Note**

**I think now that I've done some research I'm ready to write this chapter. I'll admit I couldn't find much on 'straight' camps (because of their beliefs and tactics many are private owned and have to be recommended- you can't just find them on a computer), so some parts of this chapter were harder to write. I found a lot on boot camps and the sort, so I'm taking some information from those sources. _Just know that not everything I write will be super-extremely factual_, even though I have researched and gotten facts. I'm sort of tweaking things to fit for the story, so don't take it as an actual source to how these camps are run, especially 'straight' camps (because I have next to no information on such camps). Also, I'll be addressing a lot of Alec's thoughts as well as the opinions of others in this chapter, but I promise you Magnus will appear again either at the end of this chapter or by the beginning of the next- He'll be back in the story soon enough.**

**P.S. For those of you who like Ragnor Fell, this is an all human story so I had to change his appearance a little bit.**

**[Break]**

Chapter 3- Others

Alec had to admit he didn't know what was going to happen to him. Of course, the meeting with Father Morgenstern, the guard's actions, the schedule of this so called "boarding school", and also Magnus's newly found title as friend (or should it be mentor?) did not fail to surprise Alec. It was just that Alec had learned more shocking things in the last day than he had learned in the last three years of his life. The only real consequential event in his life had been when his parents had found out he was gay, but now even that seemed to be fading away in the shadow of what was happening. Magnus had given him fair warning and even with Alec's promise to himself to stay out of trouble on his first day, he suddenly didn't have as much faith in the goal as he had originally thought.

At his old school in New York life had been easy. His parents weren't particularly stressed about his grades or his friends. In fact, they didn't really care that much about who he chose to associate himself with and they only got on his case if grades went below a C. They were too busy with their own problems and screaming at each other to notice Alec. After Isabelle and Jace left it seemed like there wasn't anything that deemed their full attention. Alec's sister and adopted brother were the ones that had always gotten in trouble, or somehow managed to mess everything up. Alec had blended in and hadn't done anything to provoke or displease his parents. Only when he began sneaking out and they found him in bed with his ex-boyfriend did they react. His father had shown his disapproval by yelling for hours, telling him to get his head out of the gutter. Robert even went as low as to hit Alec, but he didn't seriously injure his son; not physically, at least. Alec's mother -Maryse- chose a simpler method that shook Alec to the core. She didn't speak to him, acknowledge him, or even _look_ at him for months. After that had finally passed Alec had thought that things were going back to normal; his parents started talking to him again, but even then it was rare. His parents started to fight and bicker like before, so he had thought they had forgotten it and pushed it to the back of their minds that he was gay.

Obviously they hadn't forgotten it because otherwise he wouldn't be at this religious boarding school with a specific order for the 'straight' schedule, as he would later find out.

**[Break]**

Alec was sitting in his assigned seat in the back right corner of the room, looking towards the board where one of the guards with a burly body and long brown hair - who apparently was also a licensed teacher-, was explaining algebra. It was all easy and familiar to Alec; he had actually had pretty high grades in his math classes back in New York. Soon, he couldn't help but let his mind wander.

There were about half of the boys from the hallway in the classroom. He had figured out that the guards split apart the students that occupied the rooms of the school for most of the classes. They were going to be brought together only for lunch and mass, but would be separated again for Specialty classes. Looking forward to anything on his schedule was hard to do, but Alec guessed that lunch would be the most promising. It could give him a chance to talk to others; he doubted that Magnus would be lying to him when he said that others in the school didn't agree with what was being taught- just like him and Alec. Alec decided it was probably in his best intentions to seek out such people, even though at the moment he didn't particularly know how. It wasn't like he could go around asking who agreed with Valentine and who didn't. He knew that doing such a thing would only give away that he was on Magnus's side. Alec also feared that Magnus would get in even more trouble for 'influencing' him and that was a nearly unbearable prospect, in Alec's mind.

"Alexander!"

Alec's head snapped up at the exclamation from the guard at the front of the classroom. Noticing the system of equations on the board and the guard's petulant stare because of his obvious ignoring of the lesson he swiftly mapped the equation in his head, not even bothering to write it out on the white-board in front of him.

"2 and -9; you get the answer by taking the equation of -5x+1 and putting it into the equation of 8x+2y=-2 to get 8x+2(-5x+1)=-2 or 8x+-10x+2=-2. You add 8x to the -10x to get that -2x+2=-2. Doing basic algebra you know that x=2. Putting the value of x into the other original equation of y=-5x+1 you are able to find that y=-9, hence the conclusion (2,-9)," Alec explained in a rush, his cheeks blushing with color.

Over half of the males in the room, including the guard, turned to stare. They could all see his flaming cheeks, but all of a sudden Alec didn't know why he was even embarrassed in the first place. He had answered the question on the board and it was _basic _algebra; what was so wrong with that?

"Clearly you were not listening to my instructions or you would have known that I only asked you where to start on this equation. I did not ask you to solve it or to give me more than one step- that will be an infraction point for you, Lightwood." The guard growled, before turning around and replacing the equation on the board with another one.

Alec gulped at the mention of infraction points- for he didn't even know what they were- and he watched as almost all of the teenagers in the room who were still staring followed the nervous movement. Many looked away after that with smirks of amusement on their faces as they turned their attention back to the board, but one stood out from the rest. A boy- probably about 18 or 19- was giving him a genuine and friendly smile over his shoulder. He was in the row to Alec's left and about two seats in front of him. His head was shaved and his skin seemed to give off some sort of florescent glow almost because it was so pale. It made him stand out among the other teens in the room and Alec couldn't help but feel that he was somehow a friend, or even a companion of Magnus's. Why else would he be smiling at Alec? He seemed to speak something- although Alec had no idea what, he was terrible at lip reading- before he turned away and focused again on the teacher.

Finding that he couldn't let himself daydream anymore and afraid of getting more infraction points Alec centered his attention back on the math lesson being taught. He figured the math session of the class period was almost over by now. They had to do real school stuff like math, reading, science, and technology to keep up with the parents arguments that just because they were sending their children to a boarding school didn't mean that the school curriculum was to be completely thrown out the window.

Reading was next and afterwards sessions on computers; it was all too simple for Alec and he breezed through it all effortlessly. He found himself disconnecting from reality more than once when he was finished with his work and the question about why the teenage boy ahead of him had smiled kept nagging at the back of his mind. Promising himself to talk to the boy later he tried to keep focused throughout the class and hopefully not give the teacher anymore reasons to put Alec on his bad side.

**[Break]**

It turned out morning classes were almost six hours long; once Alec finally stood again to be escorted with the rest of the students in the class to lunch his legs had cramped and fallen asleep. He was the last out of the room, due to taking time to regain the feeling in his limbs. A rough push from a transport guard (Alec had heard it muttered by another student that that was what the guards who accompanied them to classes were called) almost sent him sprawling to the floor while he was following the teens ahead of him, but he regained his footing quickly and walked at a faster pace.

After passing through many seemingly endless and colorless hallways they arrived in a room with the extent of a medium sized gym. Following the others being ushered into a line along the wall Alec looked around, timidly at first. Benches and tables were being filled up steadily by the people before him in the line as guards wavered around the perimeter of the room. Once Alec grabbed a tray as the line moved forward he glanced up from where he had been staring at his shoes. He saw the stern faces of the male cooks as they slopped what looked like a burned and maimed version of Italian pasta onto his tray, with stale bread on the side and veggies that looked like they had been dug out of the ground that morning and not washed before being hurriedly pushed onto their plates. The cooks had next to no facial expression- just like the rest of the guards at the school. Getting to the end of the line Alec moved away hastily to the center of the room, before he even stopped to remind himself that he had no idea where to sit.

It was like being in middle school all over again, except this time the stakes were much higher than just sitting with the right people meaning popularity and acceptance. Who he sat with now could mean the difference between surviving in this place and putting himself in the middle of a hell hole with the wrong people. Looking around he couldn't see anyone who looked friendly enough to sit by. Mild and subtle chatter was echoing throughout the cafeteria, but he couldn't pick up on any conversations that could possibly lead him in the right direction towards people who he would be able to befriend. He had no other choice but to stay standing where he was while simultaneously knowing that he looked like a complete idiot.

"Hey, Lightwood, come here and sit!"

Alec moved over to the table from which the dirty blonde haired teen had called to him, but did not sit down. This was one of the fuller tables, many boys gazing at him as if waiting for him to make the move to settle down.

"Come on, we need to talk to you about all the great things Father Morgenstern will be doing! Some of us will be sent home pretty soon, so it's important that we teach and tell you all the things you'll need to really appreciate him and change for the better!"

It sounded like he was quoting one of Valentine's own guide books and it honestly made Alec sick to his stomach. These were the teens that had nodded their heads at Father Morgenstern's 'pep talk' for the day- the ones that fully agreed with him. He took a step back, wanting to get away.

Suddenly, a hand was pushing him through the line of tables. He was surprised to find that it seemed to be a gentle hand, not rough like the guard's. Letting whoever it was lead him to a table he tried to look over his shoulder, but whoever it was managed to escape his view.

Alec was forced into a seat across from two other boys- who looked to be around his age- as the one who had been pushing him through the room came into his peripheral vision and gracefully sat down next to him.

The shaved teen with the seemingly florescent pale skin was looking at him with interest, as if trying to figure him out as well as size him up at the same time. Alec shifted uncomfortably under the attention of the three, finding that the two boys across from them were also wearing similar expressions.

"Um, who are you?" Alec said awkwardly.

The shaved teen gave him another smile (like he had in class) and Alec couldn't help but feel that it was a rather nice smile. He knew looks could be deceiving, but he felt there was something real behind this teenager's smile. Before he knew it the teenager had looked around swiftly- most likely checking to see that the guard's weren't watching- before he laid small kisses to both of Alec's cheeks and firmly yet gently shook his hand under the table.

"Ragnor Fell, my darling," he introduced, that honest smile still on his face.

Alec felt himself smiling back.

"Well, I'm Alexander, but I prefer Alec."

"'Defender of Mankind', what a wonderful name," he purred, twirling a spoon through the Italian dish on the tray in front of him, but it looked like he didn't really like the concept of actually eating it.

"This is Ramen and Chaska, two of my close associates," Ragnor continued, waving a hand to indicate the two boys across from them.

The two boys gave nods of welcome in his direction. Alec saw that the one to the left- who was apparently Ramen, for Ragnor had pointed to him first- had short brown hair and crisp grey eyes that seemed to radiate both the hardness and the color of steel. The one to the right- Chaska- had black hair like Alec did and he looked a lot like him, except his eyes were a much darker blue, more like the depths of the ocean than the endless sky that Alec's own eyes held. He was not surprised to see that they were dressed like both him and Ragnor, having dark clothing on that would be easy to work in.

"Of course, we are very close friends with Magnus as well," Ramen added after the introduction, his voice low to not be heard by the guards who were circling around like predatory birds waiting to snatch up their prey.

At the mention of Magnus's name he immediately tensed up; so his hypothesis had been correct- the shaved teen was in fact a friend of Magnus's. It had been hard most of the day to get Magnus out of his head, not knowing what was happening to him or what was being done to him. It had also been hard for him not having Magnus by his side and having to figure everything out on his own. At least it looked like he had these guys on his side now. He was suddenly very grateful that Ragnor had pulled him away from the table with the "Valentine Believers". It was obvious he would be more comfortable with these three.

"What is happening to Magnus?" Alec questioned, wanting nothing more than to hear that Magnus might be alright. "What is Isolation? I'm worried about him."

All three boys shared looks that Alec wasn't able to decipher and they seemed to be debating about whether or not to tell him. In the end Ragnor gave a firm nod in Ramen's direction. The steel eyed boy took in a breath before answering.

"When you do something horrible, that the guards despise of or find inappropriate, they send you down to Isolation," he said, under his breath. "Being sent down to Isolation practically sends the message that the regular classes aren't enough; you need extra attention to try and change your ways. It is also the highest form of punishment they can hand out. In Isolation you are put in a blank cement room- chained to the floor- and you lay there and are left alone. Sometimes it's for hours, sometimes for days. That's the easiest form of Isolation. What is probably happening to Magnus is that he is being questioned about the stuff he is hiding, while likely being beaten by one of the older students or guards to give him more 'encouragement', as they would describe it. Isolation is hard to go through- I've been there a few times myself- but after a while it's like you become immune to their methods. It's like it doesn't work for you anymore, as if you have become tolerant to their ways. Magnus passed that point a long time ago. He's been to so many Isolations that I've lost count and I doubt it even has the tiniest effect on Magnus anymore. I honestly wouldn't worry too much about him, as of right now."

The thought of Magnus going through what Ramen had just described was terrifying, but it appeased his worries about him being highly hurt or injured. He had met Magnus yesterday, but he already knew that Magnus was a tough fighter and an immediate threat to Father Morgenstern. He wouldn't give that up anytime soon, so Alec felt himself calming. Isolation definitely didn't sound fun- not in any way at all, and he guessed he would have to go through it himself before he knew exactly how much it took for someone like Magnus to come away unscathed – but he hoped he wouldn't have to be sent there any time soon and that Magnus would be back to them in the very near future.

Understanding must have been showing on his face because the other teenagers at the table relaxed, knowing that Alec had come to the conclusion that they all already knew about Magnus.

"Do you know what infraction points are?" Alec asked abruptly, all of a sudden wanting to know everything he could about this school before he was separated from them.

"You mean what you got during math class? Awesome answer to that question by the way; I think they get irritated when they see that we're actually smarter than sixth graders," Chaska said with a devilish grin.

"Infraction points are what we get when we do something wrong or something the guards don't like, but it's not big enough to actually be sent down to Isolation for it," Ragnor answered his question, before Chaska could go on. "If you get ten points then you're sent to Isolation. That's how the points work. The only bad thing is that sometimes it gets pretty easy to earn infraction points, considering the guards hand them out like free candy." He finished before he actually took a bite of his food, washing it down with a wisp from the small water bottle he had gotten with his lunch.

Alec decided he at least had to try his food now that the anxiety he had over Magnus and the infraction points had been soothed. Taking a bit of pasta onto his spoon he found it to have more the taste of burnt noodles than anything else and a bite from the roll of bread gave results that it was hard and tasteless. Hiding the look of disgust on his face at the food in front of him was hard to do and Ragnor let out a small laugh as Ramen chortled, shaking his head.

"I know it's not the most appetizing thing, but I suggest getting some food into you before PL. We have that next, so I'll give you some words of advice- _Eat_. We don't get fed again till dinner at eight," instructed Ragnor, pushing Alec's tray towards him.

Alec prayed Grace silently like he had been instructed to by Ragnor- under the intimidating and cold glare of a nearby guard, as well- before he took another timid bite from the food sitting in front of him.

Alec tried to do what he was told, but it was hard to hold down the food he seemed to be forcing down his throat. Ragnor gave him a nice pat on the back for finishing, Chaska being generous and giving him the rest of his water as if in congratulations. They kept up small talk, fading to silence when a guard would patrol nearby. Magnus was definitely the highest threat in the school and he learned that the table was well watched during lunch and those associated with him were observed closely.

Ragnor, Ramen, and Chaska were nearly as big threats as Magnus, but they seemed more low-key, even though if it came to it they would be just as rebellious and independent. Talking to them gave Alec a better overall feel for this new environment and it also gave him the sense that he was making friends, something that had been hard for him all of his life. They gave him helpful tips as well as information-such as the full name of the place they were currently at (The Christian Boarding School of Roanoke Springs for Troubled and Mislead Teenagers) - and they told him who to stay away from, as well as who to 'suck up' to. Alec didn't particularly like the idea of sucking up to a person to get what he sought after- for he had always believed that he had to work to get what he really wanted- but he learned quickly that sucking up was a major factor in the plan of rebellion. Ralph was the main person to get on your side; he may be intimidating, but he was the one that was transporting and smuggling in all the goods the boys could want if given a little in return. Some of the other guards were harder to get through to, but with persuasion they would do the exact same. Alec couldn't help but smirk; with all the boys were telling him Alec was convinced that Valentine needed some better staff, but was most likely not even aware of what was happening right under his nose.

"Why is your head shaved?" Alec couldn't help but ask while they were waiting to be taken out of the cafeteria by staff after they were finished eating. It had been something that he had been curious about since he first saw Ragnor in class.

"My hair used to be blue," Ragnor replied simply. "My parents couldn't wash it out of my hair, so they told the guards to shave it when I got here."

"Shouldn't it have grown back by now?" Alec wondered.

"When I first arrived here I had some dye stashed away in my bag, so they couldn't find it while searching my stuff. Every time I would get enough hair I would dye it and they would just shave it off again. It's quite a tedious process, but I doubt it will end anytime soon. I've got enough to last me for months," he told him with a smirk. He quieted down quickly when a guard started hovering their way.

"Get up!" the man yelled, making an upwards motion with his hand.

Everyone at the table got up immediately, following the rest of the teenagers spilling out through a door near the back of the cafeteria. Harsh sunlight hit Alec like a train- he had to close his eyes and open them slowly again to get used to the rays. The sun had been cruel when he had arrived here, but then it had been evening and they were out now at the peak of the day; it didn't even compare. He figured out it was probably a bad choice to wear jeans, especially when the heat started to close in on him. From farther up ahead he could see the guards leading the group down the side of a cliff behind the school, a rough path leading down onto the desert that he now saw seemed to stretch for miles with only mountains in the distance. A few large bushes were growing along the paths and ground and he could hear the faint rattle of a snake, which set him on edge. A call up ahead made its way through the suffocating air and around him Alec saw a few boys grimace as they finally figured out what the 'physical labor' for the day would be.

"It's time for PL boys and if I see even one of you lagging I will send you down to Isolation for a week, with my own daily visits insured!"

**[Break]**

Sure, Alec had expected some type of exercise; maybe running up and down the cliff in the heat a few times or something else agonizing. What he didn't expect was to be running sixty-five pound barrels of supplies from the bottom of the precipice all the way up to the top in the burning heat and then returning to the desert floor to pick up more from a warehouse that was used for storage.

No one was lying when they called it physical labor.

Alec was only with his seventh barrel when he was stumbling and failing to catch his breath, slowing down to an almost crawling pace which was sure to land him in Isolation if one of the guards saw. One boy had already been taken in for walking and many others were close to keeling over from heat exhaustion, just like Alec. His raven black hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat and his jeans and dark shirt were trapping in and attracting unnecessary heat. The guards were allowing the students to shed their shirts and many were running by with them dangling from their back pockets or from the waistband of their shorts. Alec had to admit he was too self-conscious to do such a thing, but he was seriously considering it with the possibility of heatstroke creeping up on him.

He was greatly thankful when Chaska was suddenly beside him and taking some of the pressure off his shoulders to gradually help him along the increasing slope of the pathway.

"How many do we have to do?" Alec gasped out, hoping desperately for a good answer.

"Fifteen barrels each. It's okay; you're almost half-way there," he encouraged, wiping sweat away from his eyes before setting a brisker pace that Alec was forced to follow.

The relief of having the barrel off their backs for at least the run back down the cliff was something to look forward to, but it ended too quickly in Alec's mind. Alec finally decided _fuck it_ and removed his shirt, stuffing it in his back jean pocket. His skin was very pale, but he didn't have it nearly as bad as Ragnor and he had a reasonable set of abs- what did he have to worry about? It was better than fainting and dying of heatstroke.

Four more barrels passed with sweat dripping down his back, into his eyes, and nearly making him lose his grip on the sides of the barrel thrown over his shoulders. He was having a hard time ignoring the other shirtless and very sweaty _males _that were constantly passing him, but he tried to clear his mind and focus on the task at hand. It would be very bad if a guard were to catch him gawking at another student and that thought made him force his eyes away from the others running by him.

When he finally dropped off his thirteenth barrel at the top he stopped for a moment, in a daze at the sight before him. Ragnor was sitting shirtless on-top of the pile of supplies that he had brought up; Ramen's and Chaska's piles close by. They appeared to be the first ones done and two lone barrels stood in front of the three heaps. Ragnor gestured to them with his head and it took Alec a moment to comprehend what he was trying to tell him.

"We'll help you this once, or until you get the swing of things. It wasn't that hard to carry up an extra barrel."

Alec nodded his thanks before rushing to roll the two barrels over to his own pile. It was amazing how the three had somehow gotten done so quickly and that two of them had carried up an _extra_ barrel so he wouldn't overwork himself and overheat. He couldn't hold back his embarrassment over it, but he was about to faint from exhaustion and he was glad that they had given him the two barrels. He knew he had to repay them somehow in the near future.

He finally crawled up onto some of the barrels from his own pile, allowing himself to breath. The sun was continuing to beat down ruthlessly and the containers felt warm underneath his skin, but it was nice to finally be done with the physical labor. He saw Ragnor lounging with his back to the guard at the top of the hill- who seemed to not have noticed the exchange of the barrels to Alec's pile- and Ramen was almost asleep, while Chaska was watching as the other students came up from the trail along the cliff before they would turn back to descend and get more barrels.

For the first time since Father Morgenstern's daily speech Alec felt fully relaxed. Even at lunch he had been anxious, with the guards watching their every movement. Now he was almost out of sight from the one guard at the top of the cliff and Ragnor, Ramen, and Chaska were similarly content. Alec didn't know how long it had taken them to get all the barrels up the cliff, but he guessed it had taken a couple hours because the sun was now repositioned in the sky and no longer straight above them. He let the sweat from the labor be wiped away by his shirt and soon enough he wasn't even concerned about the heat from the sun.

Using his shirt as a make-shift pillow he got thirty minutes of sleep before the guards were calling them in for mass.

**[Break]**

"Do you have anything to confess, Lightwood?"

Alec had sat through the last two hours in silence, zoning out what Father Morgenstern had been ranting on about during the mass. Church had never quite made sense to him; ideas of God and heaven were things that hadn't dug into his mind and probably never would. He had deeper reasons to be an atheist- reason that he didn't fully know yet- but it was enough for him to turn his back on religion and accept reality, as he looked at it. He hadn't comprehended anything Father Morgenstern had said in the past hours, so when everything suddenly went quiet and everyone was forced to kneel he was surprised only seconds later to find the man standing right in front of him.

"What do you mean, sir?" Alec asked innocently.

"Anything you want to get off your chest and admit to God, Alexander. He will always accept you and forgive you. Something that you've done in the past or even… _Magnus _and where he's hiding his make-up, perhaps?" He questioned with a cruel smirk.

"If God was so accepting _he_ would be the one to admit that he's the one that made me gay and that he has no problem with it." Alec growled. "And I know nothing about where Magnus is hiding anything," he said, lying easily. His eyes narrowed as he looked up at Valentine, as if challenging the man to pursue the topic and try to prove him wrong.

"Being gay is a disease, a choice, or a misconception- once you are free from it God will forgive you for all the wrongs you've done. Also, you should not lie to God," Father Morgenstern snarled, looking odd in his priest robes and such an abnormal expression on his face.

"I was not lying."

Valentine fixed him with a look that would have made demons themselves cower, but Alec would not tell him the truth or break- for the sake of Magnus. It also felt like the right time for Alec to get some power of his own and make it known to Valentine. He had made Alec tremble in his office with the details of his file, but he wasn't going to be taken down that easily. Father Morgenstern at least had a right to know that about him; he wasn't a complete weakling like he had come off to be during their first meeting.

Father Morgenstern was walking past him and to the next row of pews. A smile of achievement was on Alec's face in a mere second, a thumbs-up from Ramen who was sitting across from him in the make-shift church adding to his triumph. Ragnor and Chaska were sitting somewhere farther back in the chapel. He tried to find them when he chanced a glance to the back of the room, but was unable to see them. Father Morgenstern was going to each teen individually and a limited amount of guards were at the very back doors- the only way out of the room. Otherwise, all he saw were other students he didn't know.

Alec watched as Father Morgenstern stopped at the boy that had urged Alec to sit by him during lunch and with the rest of the pack of "Valentine Believers". They seemed to actually strike up a conversation and Alec saw how the boy could be a favorite of Father Morgenstern. The boy was smiling and talking like he would to a good friend and Valentine seemed amused or even entertained, listening to every word.

If Alec had to act like _that _to get out of here he knew he would never have the self-control to fake it.

**[Break]**

Getting through classes with minimal trouble, finding friends in Ragnor, Ramen, and Chaska at lunch, having help and actually feeling relaxed at the end of PL, and finally with a small win during mass, Alec was feeling pretty good at the end of the day. He had kept his promise with himself to stay out of trouble- he only had a small infraction point- and none of the guards had seen a reason to beat on him at any time during the day. He came to the conclusion that everything wouldn't be so bad; all he needed to do was keep his infraction point totals down and not majorly piss anyone off. He couldn't forget that not submitting to the guards, Valentine, or the classes meant that he would be here a while- which would be the most sluggish part of his time here and in the end what would run on both his nerves and his patience- but it would be worth it if he was finally able to get out of the school without any major tests of his sanity.

Of course, he shouldn't have come to conclusions before the day was over.

At the very end of his schedule- after mass, but right before dinner and showers- there was a small space labeled 'Specialty'. Alec had tossed it to the back of his mind before, but now it resurfaced as two guards took him- and _only_ him- down a maze of hallways to a room on the far side of the school compound. There was only one guard in the room when he was thrown in and about five students with fearful looks. They must have been out of mass before him, but he knew he saw a couple of them during lunch. Nothing seemed to be different or unusual about them and Alec honestly didn't know why he was in this room now with them, during the time labeled 'Specialty'. He walked quietly over to the only seat open in a circle that was formed with the chairs. The guard was standing in front of the door and giving all the boys looks as if sizing them up.

"Since we have a new student with us today, I think it is important to give him a welcome to this small group of ours by putting him in the spotlight for his first day," the guard- who oddly enough was the guard that had checked his and Magnus's room earlier that morning and slapped Magus- was saying as Alec tried to connect eyes with any of the other boys, but they all avoided his glances.

"What do you think turned you gay, Alexander?"

The question took Alec by surprise- what had _turned _him gay?

"I wasn't _turned _gay; it's a fact of my life. It's not like I was bitten by a gay spider and now I'm suddenly a homosexual." Alec scoffed.

The guard was standing over him in seconds and the slap that landed across his face flamed with pain. This guy really had something for slapping people and- unfortunately for all of them- he did it well.

"The point of this class is to help you get over your homosexuality. It is merely a distraction and with the help of God and through your own personal work it is something you will be able to diminish," he explained sternly.

Alec did not respond.

"Most of the time same-sex attraction becomes of earlier childhood experiences; such as being abused or shunned by male adults or peers," he went on. "By being disconnected from men attraction sparks to fill in the hole reserved for male bonding. It is an unconscious choice that leads you to believe that you were born that way, which is untrue. That leads me to my next question. Were you abused as a child, Alexander? Or were you rejected by your peers?"

Very few memories sprung up, but even then Alec had no intentions of telling the guard anything.

"I don't need to tell you that; you have no right to ask me about my personal life," Alec told him.

"Of course there has to be _something_ that has led you to same-sex attraction, Lightwood. Something had to have happened because that is the only excuse," The guard pressed.

"Or it could be that I really like dick." Alec growled out with an air of arrogance before he had a chance to comprehend what he was saying out loud. All he had wanted was the guard to get out of his face and his personal life.

But only now did he realize that he really shouldn't have said that.

**[Break]**

When Alec sat down with his food for dinner at eight his previous good-nature that he had been riding on after mass was completely gone. He was sore and still in pain from when the guard had finally lost his patience and started beating him while screeching homophobic slurs - the other teens in the room sitting quietly and not doing anything to help Alec- as he tried not to cry out. Now Alec understood why Magnus had warned him not to piss off any guards. They would take any chance they could to wham on him if they had a reason.

"Let me guess… you angered Mr. Wallaby during Specialty, didn't you?"

Alec could only nod as Ragnor sat down next to him, Ramen and Chaska following soon after.

"Specialty is probably the most hated class. Having to sit there and be told who to be and who not to be and if you don't submit then you get the shit kicked out of you," Ragnor spat.

Alec tried to eat some of the stew of mysterious meats on the plate in front of him, but did not succeed.

He didn't feel like eating.

"The same thing is happening in your group, too?" Alec asked, trying to get his mind off of what had happened to him in Specialty.

"Yep- it's pretty much the exact same thing except with different topics. Subjects such as homosexuality, bisexuality, and atheism and then deeper issues like drug abuse, depression, alcoholism, and some others, I think. Since you are a homosexual and an atheist you will be switched off and stagger between the two. You also might need to take some alcoholism Specialty classes if what you said about your parents thinking you were drinking is true," he explained.

Alec groaned.

"If it will help you any I think Magnus has some cream stashed somewhere in his furniture that could be helpful for those bruises and stopping the pain. Things like black-eyes or broken limbs are off limits for guards, but they have no rules about bruising or causing pain without leaving anything behind. I suggest trying to find that cream once you get back to your room."

"Thank you, Ragnor," Alec murmured, thanking him half-heartedly.

Dinner passed uneventfully and after showers- which he was too tired to even try to look around at the naked bodies surrounding him- he was forced back into his and Magnus's room, the door locked behind him like the night before. It had to be about eight-forty with lights out at nine, but he didn't even hesitate to rip off his shirt, change into shorts, and fall onto his bed. He didn't bother to try and find the cream Ragnor had talked about.

He looked over at the empty bed beside him and felt his heart dip- Magnus wasn't here. Alec still felt moderately worried about his roommate and he couldn't help but imagine what was happening to him. Magnus had fallen from his mind a few times during the day, but in the end his thoughts came back to Alec in a rush. Even with the reassurances about Isolation from Ragnor, Ramen, and Chaska, now having experience with being beaten by a guard Alec felt nervous for him all over again.

Eventually, he fell asleep. It wasn't particularly hard, considering he was hurting and he was tired from PL as well as the classes he had gone through during the day. He fell into a dreamless sleep, a deep abyss of darkness with no light or sound.

Even though he dreamt of nothing Alec did not awake when the door to the room opened near midnight and a body was roughly pushed inside.

Neither did he hear a moan of pain or the sound of someone falling onto the bed on the other side of the room, quickly replaced with the melody of steady breathing.

**[Break]**

**That actually turned out to be longer than I expected- and I didn't even fully write out Alec's experiences during mass and Specialty! I will probably do that in the very near future; I only cut both of those sections short because I feel I don't have a lot of information to make it that realistic. I never pay attention in church or during mass and as for straight camps its super hard getting concrete information for them, as well as tactics that are used. So I'm still working on finding those things, but I promise to add it to the story when I can find information that is useful!**

**To the reviewers:**

**[To HikariMelody**

_They will never find his make-up ;) It's true that some of the guards sneak in the stuff that the guys want or need and Magnus hides it wherever he can. Hopefully you enjoy Magnus's friends since you couldn't wait to read about them and I think I chose a better PL activity then digging holes, but I think it might still be on the option list of things to do XD_

**[To ClairlovesMalec**

_I think its great how everyone is finding Magnus to be a total bad-ass; I think that means I'm characterizing him well because that's exactly what I want! And I'm quite sure you aren't the only one who would want to bitch slap Valentine- I would actually jump at the opportunity to do so. Everyone knows he deserves it for being idiotic and it's also great that you don't think he's too cheesy! Trying to make Valentine come off as the bad guy in this story was sort of hard- to be honest- and I'm still trying to make him believable and even more relatable in future chapters. _

_And no, although license plate making sounds like something that could be a possibility in this story- I honestly don't know yet XD I promise to get some sexified Magnus in coming chapters after he comes back from Isolation. I'm sure it will be much more interesting once he's back in the story ;)_

_Also, thank you for speaking so highly of my story! I love it that people seem to like it a lot and that I'm succeeding when you guys say it's so well written! :)_

**[To Pale-Is-The-New-Tan**

_P.s. I had to change the periods in your pen-name to dash marks; it wasn't saving correctly on Doc Manager _

_Yay! - I actually have someone along for the long run! Hopefully, I won't disappoint. :)_

**[To malec-love**

_P.s. I had to change the period in your pen-name to a dash mark; it wasn't saving correctly on Doc Manager_

_It's awesome that you like the bad-ass Magnus; a lot of people seem to really like him and how I characterized him! Thank you for saying that I do a wonderful job! Compliments to my writing= compliments to me :)_

**[To SecretlyANinja98**

_I really used your comment to touch base in this chapter and not miss out on important points- I was definitely planning ahead on Alec meeting friends and seeing the different views of the school. The boy who is highly loyal to Valentine (I'll give you a hint for the next chapter- his name is Brent!) is the other side of the scale from Alec, Magnus, Ragnor, Ramen, and Chaska. There are many people at different points of "conversion", as you would call it. I'm also excited because you noticed how accurate I was trying to be for this and that is half the reason I held back on full mass and Specialty scenes. I'm still researching those. Hopefully, you enjoyed the schedule I thought up and also the rest of the story! Thank you for reviewing and I like that you're so eager for me to update this and continue!_

**[To Guest1**

_It's great that you find it so interesting and I have to agree with you that it's sad that such places exist :( I have no idea what led me to choose this plot line and setting, but now that I've started it I'm pleased that I have the story I do and that people enjoy it. _

**[To Guest2**

_Magnus's character- as well as everyone's character- I think will develop a lot over time. I have so many ideas for this story and all of them include both shocking and heartbreaking situations that will definitely lead to a lot of character development. Thank you for the review and it's splendid that you enjoy Magnus's character so much!_

**[To oreoanime11**

_They are bastards, aren't they? Unfortunately, I don't think they'll be learning anything like that any time soon, but it's funny how that was your very first reaction :) I love that you think this has a lot of promise and that you are glad that I continued it, so with any luck I won't be a let down :D _

**[To EnchantedToReadYou**

_I love that you're excited for more and I did actually take your advice in some ways. I was going to have someone question Alec over Magnus in the chapters to come, but I was like _Hey, why not just have him questioned now to show that Valentine is already suspicious of him? _So I went with that idea :) and thank you for giving me it! _

_It's great that you have read stories like the one I'm writing in other fandoms and that the one I have is better and more realistic because of the way I write! I find it sort of astonishing considering I wasn't expecting much when I began writing this story. _

_Also, thank you for your thoughts on homosexuality and homophobia, especially in such places like the setting I am describing. It is absolutely ridiculous how people can be so stupid and homophobic at times. What you said is true- why does it matter who people choose to love or to sleep with? It doesn't directly affect anyone who doesn't want it to! No one should be forced to change their sexuality or religion because another person isn't comfortable with it. I'm glad that you see how ludicrous such things really are :) _

**[To Dance Until The World Ends**

_It's an amazing feeling to know someone was floored because you put up a new chapter- thank you for enjoying it so much! It's good to know that you find it impressive. _

_Also, I didn't really notice I was centering on Magnus a little bit too much in the second chapter, but now that you mention it I'm pretty sure I was. I think it was my subconscious fitting in a lot of Magnus because I planned on him being out during the whole of chapter three. I don't think I would call it overanalyzing, but simply being very observant :). Even I failed to notice it before going back to re-read it! _

**I have no idea when I plan on the next chapter being out- I have a week long family trip coming up- but I'll update as soon as I can! *pinkie promise***

**Don't forget to review this chapter!**

**~Rockwriter**


	4. Cream

**Author's Note**

**It's seems like a lot of people are liking this story and now that I've got many good reviews I think I'm going to go full out on this story (trust me- I have numerous ideas that could definitely go on for a long while). I might update Storm of Spring every so often, but I think I'll turn my main focus to this story :D **

**Also, many of you are wondering if I'll add any other characters from the Shadowhunter or Downworlder world into this story. I was thinking about Camille for a while, but I decided to not change her into the opposite gender in this story to fit into the male boarding school setting. She will merely be a figure of Magnus's past, but might become a bigger character if I choose to do so in the future. I'm probably not going to add any Infernal Devices characters into the story either, considering I haven't fully read the Infernal Devices series yet (I know, I know, shame on me. My friend is getting on my case about not reading them). What I will tell you though is that **_**Simon and Jordan Kyle will be in the story. **_**I'm looking for a better time to fit them in. Ramen and Chaska were originally going to be Simon and Jordan, but I decided that they needed to be added to the story because they could be very important characters if everything works out the way I want it to. I might surprise though and add in another character from the TMI series, so don't lose hope yet ;) **

**[Break]**

Chapter 4- Cream

Alec wasn't prepared to be woken up by a soft and pleasant voice whispering into his ear. In fact, he had expected to be forced awake by the rough pounding of the guards on their door- just like the day before. Because he wasn't roused by the staff working at the school Alec quickly guessed that it had to be before six in the morning. He lost that train of thought though when he realized that a warm body up against his side and the gentle voice was calling to him again.

"Wake up, Alexander. I need to talk to you."

"Magnus!" Alec nearly shrieked when he realized that the boy was back in their room and out of Isolation. He moved so quickly to try and face the other teen that he almost fell off the bed in his haste.

Magnus clamped his hand over Alec's mouth unceremoniously before he could move any further, hissing in his ear.

"It's great to see that you're excited that I'm back, but can you keep it down? We don't need to wake up anyone or set the guards on our case for being awake," he warned.

Nodding, Alec pulled Magnus's hand away from his mouth. In the darkness he could only see the outline of Magnus's face and the small reflection of his eyes shining in the moonlight coming through the window. His hair seemed to be unkempt and it looked like he was lying a bit awkwardly on the bed. Alec reached out to him, but Magnus flinched away from his touch.

"A little sore," Magnus told him- as if trying to explain his sudden withdrawal- but Alec saw the grimace that Magnus tried to hide.

Alec drew in a sharp breath, thoughts of how badly he was injured and if he was okay or not spinning through his mind in a whirlwind. What if Ragnor had been wrong and the guards had seriously hurt Magnus? He wouldn't put it beyond anyone at this school to lose their patience or control over their anger and take it out on Magnus. He had already experienced such happenings for himself.

"Where are you in pain?" Alec asked him immediately, rising up to his knees slowly on the bed to look directly at Magnus who was lying on his side with an arm supporting his upper body.

Magnus didn't answer, instead sitting up and lifting his shirt off in response. Alec couldn't see well in the darkness, but he was able to make out defined abs and a smooth chest. It would have been perfect if not for the blemishes that ruined it. Dark spots were littered across his torso and they were all shades of black, blue, and purple. Alec locked eyes with Magnus as if asking for his permission to get a closer look and he was pleased when Magnus nodded. Alec shifted across the bed, getting closer to the other teenager. Pressing two fingers to each bruise and also around his ribs- checking to make sure nothing was broken- Alec silently made his way over Magnus's body. Two larger black bruises seemed to be causing him the most pain.

"Do you have anything for this? Ragnor was talking about some cream that you had," Alec asked gently, trying not to whimper when Magnus let out a louder hiss of pain as Alec checked another tender spot near Magnus's shoulder.

"So you met Ragnor; therefore you also know Ramen and Chaska," Magnus stated more than asked.

"Yes- they seem nice and they helped me a lot through the day. Now, where's that cream? I know that Ragnor wasn't lying when he said you had it," Alec said, getting back to what he was originally asking of Magnus.

"Look in the vent over there- it's easy to get the first hatch of it open. In the space to the left behind it is where I normally keep any medicine I am able to get my hands on," he breathed, pointing to the air vent on the other side of the room by Alec's dresser.

Alec made sure Magnus was comfortable before moving quickly over to the vent. Opening it without any trouble he looked inside to find about eight tubes, bottles, and jars. A couple bottles of painkillers or ibuprofen stood in the front and behind it looked like tubes used to treat sunburn, lessen irritation of skin, and even one that held a liquid that was some sort of disinfectant. Behind everything were jars- Alec picked up the first one and saw that it was the cream that he needed for Magnus's bruises. He scuttled out of the corner swiftly, but decided to grab one pill from the bottle of ibuprofen. Magnus might not have showed _too _much pain, but Alec knew that he was trying hard to not show any form of weakness, not even to Alec.

"Swallow this," Alec said sternly, thrusting the pill in Magnus's face. "I don't care if you say you're not in pain because you obviously are."

Magnus- to Alec's surprise- did not object, simply taking the pill from Alec and dry swallowing it.

Alec then opened the cap of the jar and swirled his fingers through a thick cream that was almost a paste. It was mostly a dull grey color, with blackish beads or seeds intermingled. Never seeing such a thing before Alec had reason to be suspicious. Magnus sensed his hesitance and he told Alec that it was something the guards had brought to him one day when he bribed them into giving him something for the bruises. They had said it was a concoction from the nearest town and not a normal medication on the market.

"It works like a charm, so I don't think you have to worry about anything," Magnus reassured.

Alec – finally confident that the mysterious paste would actually work- settled down beside Magnus once again, this time getting a glob of the cream onto his fingers and running it across the largest and most painful of Magnus's bruises. He didn't hiss out, but Alec could see that he was trying hard to hold his tongue and not make a sound. Repeating the process Alec went over the major marks on Magnus's tan frame, while trying to be as gentle as possible. Once all the main bruises were covered with cream Magnus took the jar out of Alec's hands, telling him that the smaller bruises would heal without it and that they did not need to waste any of the precious mixture.

Coming back to the bed after putting the jar in its original spot Alec didn't quite know what to do. For some reason he was suddenly nervous and the only noticeable reason why was because Magnus hadn't moved from his bed. Magnus had said that he wanted to talk to Alec, but while he had been nursing Magnus's wounds they had talked about the day before, which mostly consisted of Alec telling Magnus what had happened on his first day. He had listened intently and when Alec had gotten to what had happened in Specialty he offered some of the cream to him, but Alec had rejected it, saying that his sores weren't too bad. In truth they still hurt, but he was getting over it quickly. Now that Magnus had been covered in the cream, and they had talked about all that could have possibly been talked about, Alec had expected Magnus to go over to his own bed and resume sleeping.

"What time is it?" Alec asked, sitting down on the other side of the bed from Magnus.

"Around two- I woke you pretty early. We can still get four hours of sleep," he said as he yawned and leaned back onto the mattress, head resting on Alec's pillow and his black hair falling around his head like a black halo.

It looked like he wasn't in a hurry to get to his own bed.

Sighing, Alec pushed his nervousness and fear to the back of his mind as he lay down next to Magnus and got under the covers. Magnus had at least put his shirt back on- most likely to protect and help infuse the cream into his skin during the night- and he followed Alec under the sheets. Alec was surprised when Magnus's head came to rest on his shoulder, but he didn't let it distract him. They were both tired, especially Magnus with getting back at midnight and also needing sleep to help heal the larger bruises on his body.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Alec couldn't help but ask one last time. "Isolation sounded pretty disturbing by what Ramen told me. I didn't expect you back for a while yet," he admitted.

"I'm fine; they knew I was doing it- wearing those bracelets and putting on make-up yesterday- for a reason. Not even I am dumb enough in their eyes to wear make-up outside of our room, so they decided to not keep me in there as long as normal," Magnus grumbled, sounding like he was already half asleep.

"What?" Alec yelled, bolting upright as he comprehended what Magnus said.

He had done it on _purpose?_

"Why would you do such a thing if you knew it would end with you being sent to Isolation?"

"I was giving an example, Alec," Magnus replied indifferently, without looking at him.

Everything clicked.

"You were giving an example of what I would need to do if I wanted to get out of this school without changing. That's the reason you woke me up, isn't it? So I would see the bruises and know that that would happen to me in the future- that is what I will have to go through," Alec whispered, staring down at Magnus who now had an arm behind his head on Alec's pillow and was finally gazing up at him.

"There is nothing in our world that comes without a price; freedom to be the people we are unfortunately is one of the more costly," he said without emotion.

Alec didn't know what to think. He felt betrayed and scandalized at the same time, wondering why on earth Magnus would do such a thing. Yes, he had to learn the lesson that would allow him to leave here intact as the person he was before, but Magnus purposefully letting himself be abused and taken to Isolation to be beaten was something that Alec did not understand. The sense that Ragnor, Ramen, and Chaska had been leaving something out while they were all talking about what was happening with Magnus in Isolation yesterday suddenly made sense. They had known what Magnus was doing and they hadn't even bothered to tell him. Alec scowled; he suddenly hated all three of them, including Magnus.

"They had nothing to do with it, you know. I told them that if something like what I did happened that they needed to stay silent until I told you my reasoning myself," Magnus told him, once again reading Alec's mind. "Don't be angry; I needed to teach you a lesson that would stay with you your whole entire time here."

"A terrible lesson," Alec whispered, turning away from Magnus.

Hands were wrapping around his back and pulling Alec against the body behind him. Alec fought pathetically to get away, but gave up quickly; he wasn't in the mood to fight against Magnus, even if he was on Alec's bad side at the moment. He let his head fall against Magnus's uninjured shoulder as he looked up at Magnus's face above him.

"I'm the reason that you're hurt," Alec whimpered, saying what he had been thinking the whole time since Magnus had told him that he had done it on purpose. His eyes that were gazing up at Magnus started to go blurry with suppressed tears that came out of nowhere.

_No; I'm not going to cry, _Alec screamed inside his head.

"Don't think like that- I am perfectly fine. You don't need something like that on your conscious," Magnus cooed, his cheek running across the top of Alec's head. "It is okay, Alec."

Magnus noticed the water pooling up in Alec's eyes and he wiped them away with the pads of his thumbs. It seemed like he wasn't in as much pain anymore and he pulled Alec closer against him and in between his legs. He lay down on Alec's bed and moved Alec along with him. Alec came to rest against his chest, comfortable half on top of Magnus and with Magnus's arms around him. He was still slightly worried about aggravating the bruises across Magnus's torso, but when Magnus started to press tiny kisses to his hair and forehead Alec let those thoughts disappear.

"I know that you will understand eventually why I did it, Alec. But for now you should get some sleep. We both need it," he whispered against Alec, effectively ending the conversation.

Alec knew that he understood why Magnus did it; he just didn't want to believe it. The only choice he had, though, was to accept it. He couldn't be mad at Magnus forever and neither could he be angry at Ragnor, Ramen, or Chaska for withholding information that he had thought he desperately wanted. Now that he was thinking about it- finally calming down his breathing that had been starting to get out of control- he realized he wasn't even irritated by them in the first place. They had simply been doing what Magnus had told them to do and Magnus himself was simply teaching a hard lesson, a newer meaning for the term 'tough love'.

He let his eyes drift closed, knowing that staying up would do nothing for him. Magnus's breathing was already beginning to even out. His arms were cocooning Alec and he felt safe and secure in his arms, nothing that he had ever felt before with any of his boyfriends. Maybe it was the situation they were in, but being wrapped up and surrounded by Magnus was one of the most soothing actions that he had ever experienced. It was almost unjust to say that it felt nice, but in the end that was the only way he could describe it with his limited vocabulary.

Alec was soon sound asleep, the warmth of Magnus against his back and around him lulling him into a peaceful sleep.

**[Break]**

**It's pretty short, but I wanted to get another chapter out before leaving for vacation (which also happens to be tomorrow). I'll be gone for a week, but I promise to start writing again as soon as I get back. **

**Reviewers: **

**[To ChinaWolf **

_Thanks for the review! It's not everyday that I get a 'damn honey!' in reviews :) I'm trying to get Alec to be more confident for sure, especially around the guards and Valentine. He may open up to Magnus and the other three, but otherwise I think he's turning into a pretty self-assured person the more the chapters are going on; it's part of his character development. _

_And I thought it was sort of necessary to include the "Or I just really like dick" statement into the story. It came to me suddenly while writing and I thought it was a good way to transition it, besides the fact that I made it my personal goal to say that statement at one point in my writings XD _

**[To malec-love **

_P.S. Again, I had to change the period in your pen name into a dash to save on Doc Manager _

_It was one of my objectives to make everything flow, but not make it so long. It was important to have all the scenes that I did have in the story, so it's great to see that you noticed how it all flowed so well. That proves that my objective was achieved :) _

_Also, thank you for wishing me well on my family trip! We're leaving tomorrow and it's great to have some family time / a trip like this because we haven't had one for a couple years. _

_I'll update as soon as I can when I get back to writing after the trip, so hopefully you won't be waiting so long :D _

**[To Dance Until The World Ends **

_I sort of was planning on Alec caring about Magnus straight from the start and I think this chapter included that caring about him, as well as sort of gave the feeling that Magnus does care about Alec more than he wants to admit, considering he did feel sorry for doing such a thing to Alec and deceiving him like that. Magnus has done quite a few things already that proved he has genuine feelings for him, but he prefers to hide his feelings from Alec. You can only really see it in his actions how much he cares about him. _

_I am not planning on including Camille (I agree; she is quite a bitch). At the most I think she will be a person from Magnus's past- like I said in the beginning author's note- but she might play a bigger part in later chapters after everything at the boarding school has happened. I have many ideas for this story, so it's still somewhat on the table. _

_Fanfiction is actually sort of stupid lately, now that you mention it; is there a reason we can log in and other times we can't? And am I the only one who has completely new menu and 'manage stories' buttons when I'm trying to add or look over my story chapters? It is getting pretty ridiculous and confusing at the same time : / _

**[To MourningInMist **

_It was one of my main focuses starting this story to include real topics. Some of these things I'm speaking from experience; considering I'm an atheist ( my family doesn't believe it- they're all Christians too) and I recently came to terms with myself and now know that I'm a lesbian. These topics are important to me, but I'm also trying to focus on other hot topics and the discrimination others face. No one should have to hide who they are or feel sorry for being who they are and that will be shown many times in this story. _

_As for your current situation I think you are doing well so far. Saying outright that you're an atheist is a hard thing to do at first and if your friends didn't like it and left you… I don't think they were your real friends in the first place. Finding friends that will stay by you no matter what is an important thing to do. Also, if you hadn't come out to anyone that you are bisexual I'd suggest starting slowly. I've sort of been doing it by dropping "hints" (talking a lot about what is going on in the gay community, stating that I look up to bisexual or gay role models, etc.) and I practically told my sister that I'm crushing on a girl (she was okay with it). If you have a brother or sister that you trust or a really close friend I suggest telling them first when you feel like you're ready :) You shouldn't be ashamed that you're an atheist or bisexual; it should be comforting that you are able to come to terms with yourself. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who disagree with people being 'different', but in the end people like that make you stronger. _

_I'm always open to talk if you need it :) _

**[To HikariMelody **

_I'm planning on Ramen and Chaska being in the story for a particular reason and as I said in the author's note I'm also thinking of working in Simon and Jordan Kyle in later chapters. _

_And as much as I hate to admit it you are completely right about the Grace before eating thing. It totally skipped my mind while I was writing this and it never occurred to me. It's sort of too late to go back and correct it : / I've sort of been blaming it on me never praying Grace for at least the last year and not paying any attention at all to the Christian religion. You are very smart for realizing my mess-up. _

_I also agree with you on Specialty- it would completely suck, and it's sort of odd but I had a lot of fun writing that scene, as well as the scene for PL. _

**[To oreoanime11**

_Hopefully you liked the speedy update! It sounds sort of hard to maneuver around those weeks of soccer enough to fit in a family vacation, so I sort of cut this chapter short a tiny bit to be able to get it out before both you and I leave for vacations (coincidentally, I 'm leaving tomorrow too! XD) I think all of my reviewers, favoriters, and story alert people deserved a quick update for once. It sounds horrid to have no wi-fi! XD _

_Also, thank you for the compliment! I've been working hard to develop my writing style and it's great to know that it's smooth and has flow; just the way I want it. I'm telling you now that almost all relationships (Alec and Magnus, Alec and Ragnor, Chaska and Ramen, and then Magnus and Ragnor, etc.) will definitely develop more throughout the story. Alec will come face-to-face again with Valentine- as well as other guards- frequently, when they finally begin to realize he's a bigger threat than he first appears to be. _

**[To ClairelovesMalec**

_I don't think Chaska is ready for that much commitment yet, but I think you are welcome to ship as much as you want! XD I think ClairelovesMalec/Chaska could be a ship I could get behind!_

_It's great that you love one of my own characters so much. Creating characters of my own is one of my insecurities while writing, so I loved seeing that you liked one of my own characters so much!_

_And I don't know if it would be called 'Malec luvin time', but with Magnus coming back from Isolation in this chapter and admitting what he did to Alec I think that definitely moved forward their relationship. _

_It's also awesome to see that I accomplished some humor during Specialty XD_

**I will get back to writing a longer chapter after I get back, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to update for almost another two weeks. I'll try my hardest though to get it out as soon as possible. **

**Also, don't forget to review this chapter; it might encourage me to write more when I get back! ;) **

**~Rockwriter **


	5. Trust of a Devil

**Author's Note**

**Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, but I'm feeling pretty confident that it was time well spent. Hopefully it was worth the wait for all of you reading this story.**

**I know that the Grace before eating thing will follow me around forever; I'll admit that I messed-up. I've already gone back and changed it- adding in a small sentence to chapter 3- because it's always better to fix the mistakes you actually have a chance to fix (and it would have annoyed the heck out of me eventually, to be honest). **

**Also, I think that you will all appreciate that I finally finished both Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince. My friend was screaming at me on Facebook and that combined with the idea of maybe adding some of those characters (I'm thinking Henry and Woosly Scott) into this story encouraged me to finally read them. I enjoyed them a lot; even if I'm not a fan of love triangles (or whatever the fuck is going on that is ripping my heart into a million pieces). Now that I have finished them- and can't wait for Clockwork Princess- I thought it was time to get back to this story. **

**[Break]**

Chapter 5- Trust of a Devil

"Get up you little brats and ready for debrief!" A voice snarled, the sound of a fist hitting against the door rattling through Alec's head.

Alec let his eyes open slowly. The moonlight was still seeping into his and Magnus's room (even with the horizon rising in the east) and the cold night air was still in work, but Alec didn't feel it. He was warm and more comfortable than he had ever been before and not even the guard's rude and aggressive awakening could get him down from the cloud of peacefulness he was floating on. The conversation from only hours before came back to him quickly and he suddenly remembered why he was so at ease. The feeling of betrayal he had felt when Magnus first told him had faded and he had forgiven Magnus, allowing himself to sleep in the man's arms during the night.

Magnus's steady breathing ruffled the top of Alec's hair and the small motion sent shivers down Alec's spine. A steady heartbeat right next to Alec's ear told him that Magnus was still asleep, although how Magnus was managing to never awaken when the guards came knocking Alec had a feeling he would never know. Alec slowly untangled himself from Magnus's arms- even though he hated to do so- and flipped onto his stomach while simultaneously being extra careful around Magnus's injuries. Once he was finally looking at Magnus's face he reached out a hand and gently ran his fingers across the other male's high cheekbones, as well as up and through his silk-like hair.

"Magnus?" Alec breathed while he waited to see if even his small whisper would be enough to awaken his roommate.

"Yes, my darling?" A hazy reply came seconds later, Magnus's eyes fluttering open to reveal the golden and green irises beneath.

"The guards are coming around and waking everyone up. I think it's time to get out of bed - _my _bed, actually." Alec told him, blushing as he pointed out that they were both in Alec's bed, tangled in the sheets and limbs hanging carelessly off the sides of the frame. It's not like he hadn't been in bed with another male, but having Magnus so close and sleeping with him for some reason sent an unknown feeling surging through Alec, something that he couldn't quite explain.

Magnus smiled up at him, any signs of his injury having vanished in the night. He leaned up and for one chaotic moment Alec feared he was about to kiss him. Alec panicked, turning his head quickly to the side. Only Magnus didn't kiss him; simply came to rest by his ear like he had the very first day they met. His hot breath against Alec's skin caused Alec's own breathing to accelerate. Why Magnus's presence against him affected Alec so much he didn't know, but all he cared about at the moment was that Magnus Bane was breathing into his ear, making him tremble. He wouldn't define it as _need _that he felt_,_ but it was a definite _want_. Alec _wanted_ Magnus this close to him. Alec _wanted _Magnus to touch him. Alec_ wanted_ to know more about Magnus and _wanted _to have a deeper relationship with him. And if they weren't in the current predicament that they were in he wouldn't hesitate to tell him that.

But they were in the middle of nowhere and at a school that wanted to change their very beings so that other people could be happy and content. It didn't matter that they were their own people or that they should have a say in who they were and in who they wanted to be. Problems like drug abuse and alcoholism could be things that needed to be helped or changed, but being homosexual, being atheist- like what he and Magnus were- _couldn't be changed. _Why couldn't anyone besides themselves understand that? And it wasn't just them; Alec had learned that classes ranged from other sexualities- like bisexuality, transexuality, and asexuality- to things such as simply being of a different religion than Christianity. Everything made Alec sick, but he knew that Magnus spoke the truth when he said that there was no other way to get out besides standing his ground and going on until all hope was lost. It was a plan that wouldn't go without torture and Alec already knew that not having Magnus by his side he probably wouldn't be able to make it. By no way was he dependent on Magnus- he had only known the other male for two days- but without Magnus he feared he would lose his mind before he was taken out of here. He could manage the classes, he only needed a little more muscle work for PL, but there was the large possibility of Valentine crushing him when it came to Specialty and what he could deal out. Alec needed Magnus to lean on, not to completely hold him up, but taking the chance of the guards and Valentine seeing that- his weakness- was a chance that he couldn't take.

That was why Alec couldn't tell Magnus that he wanted him. They would only be ripped apart by the psychopaths at this damned school, especially if they ever got wind of what was happening between them. Magnus had even told him himself that they would move Alec to a different room if necessary and Alec didn't know what he would do if that happened. He would still be able to see him in classes and at lunch, but they would always have guards circling around them, no time or opportunity to talk freely and be close to each other like they were right now. He couldn't put himself- and he couldn't put Magnus- in that position.

It just couldn't happen.

Alec pulled away from Magnus, not even hesitating because of the fact that Magnus was kissing- _sucking_, even- on the skin under his ear and at the curve of his neck. Pushing himself off the bed he got to his feet and walked over to Magnus's dresser to turn on the light, before he moved to his own dresser to pull out another pair of jeans(he hadn't forgotten what it felt like to wear jeans yesterday, but at the moment he didn't really care) and a dark blue T-shirt. He pretended like he hadn't seen the slightly disappointed look on Magnus's face when he had moved away from him.

"You should get ready. We only have ten minutes, remember?" Alec told him, trying to distract both himself and Magnus from what had been so close to happening. He pulled on the jeans he had in his hands, not turning around to make sure Magnus was listening.

"That's still plenty of time." Alec heard Magnus say from his place on Alec's bed. He only sighed and grabbed the shirt from where it was sitting on the top of his dresser.

"Well, you should still get dressed. They may come in early or something," Alec muttered while flipping his shirt back to normal from where it had been inside-out.

Hands were being placed on his hips, fingers twisting into the belt loops on his jeans, and Magnus's head was suddenly on Alec's shoulder and gazing at him. It did not help that their bodies were aligned, Alec's back to Magnus's front. Alec hissed in a breath, wanting like he had before, but knowing at the same time that he couldn't let Magnus go any further. Magnus started to kiss along his neck again and Alec struggled to get out of his grip, but Magnus's strong arms held him in place. When Magnus's tongue traveled along the hollow of his neck Alec squeaked and jerked, his lids closing and his neck bending to allow Magnus better access to his skin. Only when Magnus bit down- not too hard, but not exactly soft, either- did he realize what he was doing.

"Magnus," Alec gasped, trying to turn his head to face him. "Please, _Stop." _

Instead, Magnus uncurled his fingers from the belt loops, running them up Alec's chest. Magnus kissed harder into his neck and now Alec couldn't hold back his moan.

"You want this," Magnus growled, an all-knowing tone to his voice.

"Maybe," Alec groaned, but then comprehending what he said he backtracked. "I mean, _No_, I don't want you… Or this! I meant this!"

"I'm getting some mixed signals here, Alexander."

"I can't want you_- or this-_ because I can't have you," he admitted quietly, as he turned his face down to the ground- in shame, maybe- but also to hide the blush that was growing on his face. He said it so quietly he doubted Magnus would hear him.

But Magnus stopped his ministrations and turned Alec in his arms. The other male looked down at Alec, misunderstanding and confusion evident in his expression; emotions that Alec had never seen before on Magnus's face. He let his hands fall from where they had been gripping Alec's sides before he stepped back, seemingly giving him more room.

"I know that if anything happens we need to keep it private- pretty much _anything_ we do we need to keep out of Valentine's knowledge and grasp- but that will never change. Is that what you are worried about?" he asked, his hand coming up to stroke along Alec's cheek, a purely comforting action.

"I-"Alec started, losing the words he needed to say. "_Magnus-"_

A loud bang reverberated through the wall, coming from the room next to them. Like something large had been thrown against it. An object seemed to be being smashed and yells as well as snarls were clearly heard. Alec lost the rest of what he was about to say when a scream erupted, cut off by what seemed to be another punch or blow. Someone was being beaten in the room next to them and Alec couldn't help but freeze up, glaring at the wall as if he could see through it. Even if he could he didn't know if he would want to see what was happening.

"Jordan Kyle and Francis Cooper are in that room," Magnus murmured, almost to himself.

"If something is happening that must mean a guard is in their room. You need to get dressed; the guard that searches our room in the morning could be in here at any second!" Alec yelled suddenly, coming out of his frozen-like state.

Magnus moved quickly- much faster than Alec ever would've expected he could- towards his dresser, pulling something out at random. Alec threw his shirt over his head and straightened it out; only to move over to his bed where he and Magnus had slept to make the covers looks more presentable. Why do the people here compel them to make their beds? They're only going to tear them apart later during searching. Alec banished the thought from his head- why was he even thinking about that in the first place?- and he tore his gaze up to find Magnus already fully dressed and waiting by the door, leaning up against the wall they would eventually have to be pressed up against when the guards searched them during debrief.

Alec went to join him and Magnus gave him a quizzical look, running the fingers on his left hand through his hair that wasn't gelled up today, but was still a bluish-green. Alec had to admit he was starting to like the color.

"So, you were going to tell me something?" Magnus pressed, his eyebrows rising. "Trust me, Alexander-"

"I do trust you." Alec replied, automatically.

"Yes, but do you trust me enough that when I say that you shouldn't worry about Valentine and that it will only feed to your already existing fear- _like they want it to- _that you will believe that I am telling the truth? You can't let them get in your head; if you want to do or say something, do or say it! By not doing so you are letting them win and we both know that that can't happen."

Alec nodded, not looking at Magnus.

"Do you trust me enough to believe that, Alec?"

"I don't know." Alec whispered and even though he wanted to say more- explain himself, maybe- he couldn't because the door to their room was thrown open and the guard from yesterday morning and Specialty class came in, ordering Alec and Magnus to the wall.

All he could do was give Magnus a clandestine glance in his direction that he hoped got across the point that he would talk to him later and reassure him that he _does _trust him; all that Alec needed to do was get over that last bit of fear that unfortunately still existed.

**[Break] **

Father Morgenstern's morning speech was as boring and as useless to Alec as the one he had spoken yesterday. The topic was- again- about changing for the better and turning away their "wrong" and "unpleasant" habits. Valentine- although this time it seemed that he was more subdued-kept a firm eye on Magnus the whole time as he walked up and down the hall, which Alec had figured out was his normal routine during his 'pep talk'. It also seemed like Valentine was paying closer attention- even directing some of his speech, like he had directed at Alec the day before- at a student lined up next to Alec and Magnus.

There were two students in the room next to them, but one of them was the obvious victim of the guard ten minutes before. It looked like he had a puppyish face, with messy brown hair and a tall frame. Alec had to admit he was very good-looking if not taking into account the spreading bruise on the side of his face that degraded his appearance. Next to him a kid- who had to be his roommate- stood stock still through Valentine's speech, visibly shaking and cowering. He had curly red hair, shocking green eyes, and he barely looked over the age of twelve. It was surprising to Alec how such two completely different people could end up stuck in a room together, but he guessed that he had only gotten lucky when he was paired with Magnus.

Following the routine of the day classes were next. It was different and more difficult with Magnus in the room; Alec felt himself almost constantly looking over at him and once or twice Magnus looked back, but didn't try to get his full attention in return. He sat on the other side of the room, two chairs from the end in the last row. Ragnor still sat two seats in front of Alec in the row to his left and he now knew Ramen sat in the very front and near the teacher's desk (It really shouldn't be called that because the guard never kept anything there; only things that were required for the lesson sat on the desk). Chaska- unfortunately- was in the other grouping, being the divider that had to be put in one side or the other in the hall of boys.

The red head from next to him and Magnus's room was straight in front of Alec. He now knew that the kid's name was Francis and he was shy and would almost always do what he was told. The kid was _gullible, _almost. Alec could only guess that he was newer; it would explain his gullibility as well as why he was nervously tapping his whiteboard marker against his desk along with the twitching and shaking that Alec couldn't help but notice. Presuming that he was ADHD was something that Alec couldn't really do- he didn't _know_ the kid, so who was he making assumptions like that? - , but he knew that it was quite the possibility considering Francis's actions.

The day actually came with a surprise; for the last thirty minutes of class time they were allowed a 'treat', as the guards called it. They were taken to the basement of the school- Alec was right when he supposed it continued underground the first day he arrived here- and they entered a large room- much like a gym- with a high ceiling and hoops lined up along the walls. There were a few new guards to supervise, but other than that they were allowed to wander on their own or play basketball with the other students. Alec ganged up with Magnus, Ragnor, and Ramen immediately. Alec still wanted to talk to Magnus about what happened in the morning, but they would have to be somewhere more private, not in a slightly crowded gymnasium.

They were forced to play a game of basketball against five other students. Alec noticed that who looked to be the leader was the one that had tried to get Alec to sit with him the day before, as well as talked openly and confidently with Valentine. His initial niceness had faded, being around Magnus, Ragnor, and Ramen labeling Alec as on their side in the other boy's mind.

He and his team granted Alec's team no mercy.

Alec was soaked in sweat, had bruised ribs, a bloody nose, and was about to faint from over exertion when they game finally ended in a tie. Magnus had somehow managed to avoid most of the carnage and fighting during the rough game, but Ragnor had a black eye from a flying elbow and Ramen had scratches bleeding down his neck. The guards didn't care to intervene and let the other boys beat the crap out of them, which would've gotten them disqualified for sure from a normal basketball match. The only good feeling that Alec received out of the whole thing was that they had somehow managed to tie the game, teaching the other team that they shouldn't be to cocky.

Walking towards the doors with Magnus and Ragnor beside him (Ramen had disappeared into the midst of people to talk to someone) he was ready to go back to his room and to bed, but he knew he couldn't do that. He was continuing towards were the guards were standing that had informed them that "play time was over" when he felt a rough hand on his shoulder, pulling him back and away from Magnus and Ragnor.

He was on his back- flopping like a fish to get back to his feet- in seconds, but when he tried to get his footing back a boot was pushing down on top of his chest. His already agonizingly bruised ribs were sent into fits of intolerable pain and throbbing that went straight to Alec's head and a hard face sneered down at him.

"Don't get your hopes too high, _fag_,"the older boy hissed. "A small win in basketball won't do anything for you, or your prissy little friends. _You know you're better off listening to Valentine._"

He landed a kick to Alec's side, bruising him more and sending pain ripping up his spine. Alec whimpered, but wouldn't let another sound escape him. Being called a fag tore at his insides and he feared that it always would. Rolling onto the side that was the least hurt he tried to get up, hideous laughter surrounding him as the group of boys made fun of his attempts and misery.

"Hey, Brent, why don't you pick on someone your own size, without your little troupe of puppets? I doubt you would be much of a big shot then," a voice growled warningly, from behind Alec.

Magnus stepped forward- in between Alec and Brent- as Ragnor got two hands under Alec and helped him into a standing position before pulling him away from the standoff. Most of the other students had stopped what they were doing to watch; forming a circle around Brent, his assailants, and Magnus. The guards were leisurely watching and not even starting to make a move to stop the potential fight that could happen in mere moments. Agitation simmered in the air, as well as silence so potent it could probably be cut with a knife.

"Why pick on a sixteen year old, Brent? Afraid you will be put in your place by your seniors?" Magnus mocked, but behind his cool exterior his back was tight with tension, as if he was ready to fight at the drop of a dime if it was needed.

"Who are you to tell me who my seniors are, _Magnus?" _Brent glowered. "Superiority is measured on privilege and last time I checked you didn't have much of that."

"And we both know the reasons why that is," Magnus countered. "I for one think superiority is measured in how much you can take- how strong you are- as well as what you are able to give to others. Who is the better person here, Brent? Just because you get the "treat" of being the one to beat the living shit out of everyone here doesn't mean you are more privileged. And being Valentine's little lapdog doesn't automatically make you the better person."

"You dare to call yourself better!" He snarled. "You are nothing but a Devil!" Brent screamed- rage in his eyes- and lunged at Magnus. Magnus was expecting it, dipping to the side almost gracefully and causing the teenager to hit the cement floor with a sickening thud.

"I am not inclined to fight today, Brent. All I am here to say is keep away from things that can easily overpower you or can put you in rather _horrid _situations that not even your all-and-mighty Valentine- or even _God _himself- ," he leered sarcastically, "- can protect you from." Magnus threatened before turning away. Walking through the group that had circled the two was easy for him because the students parted quickly when he came through, either out of fear of him or respect for him.

Brent got up off the floor- his bottom lip cracked and bleeding from where it had hit the hard surface- and sent a look of pure hate in Alec's direction, before scampering away and through the crowd that had gathered around them.

Alec let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding; Magnus had _threatened _Valentine's pet goody-goody teenager in front of everyone in the room. He also had to admit that he was thankful for Magnus saving his ass, _again._ The students around them dispersed and started to follow the guards to lunch, now that the entertainment for the hour was over. Alec limped along- resting against Ragnor's shoulder for support- after the other teenagers, finding himself and Ragnor at the back of the group.

"Wait up there, Ragnor!" A voice called, as they were getting out of the hallway that led to the underground gym.

They both turned to see a guard- yes, a _guard_- running towards them. It was weird to know that a guard was on a name-to-name basis with Ragnor, but Alec trusted that Ragnor knew what he was doing when he stopped to let the guard catch up. The guard had reddish hair- almost like Francis's- but it was shorter and not as curly. Glasses rested high on his nose and behind them were (did Alec dare to say it?) friendly hazel eyes. This man was definitely different than any of the other guards Alec had met.

"Henry," Ragnor greeted with a smile. "Nice to see you around- after what happened, I mean."

"Yah, Yah, Valentine will never trust me, I get it." Henry affirmed. "He found out that I was getting you guys out of PL that one day, but what can he do to me? They're too short on staff at this place to fire me," he said lightly, almost with a joking tone.

Ragnor nodded, understanding. Meanwhile, Alec was still marveling in the idea that there was a guard in front of them that wasn't growling at them or hated them.

"I called to you two in the first place because I think Mr. Lightwood here needs to go to the _Infirmary _because of his injuries that he got from Brent, you know?" he directed mostly at Ragnor.

"The Infirmary doesn't do anything. We both know it is there because a school like this needs one, but they don't carry medicine or…" he faded off, confusion and puzzlement clear in his eyes.

"They may not have medicine- _but maybe a good friend could help him with that, tonight_- and for now he can rest." Henry stated, hoping Ragnor would get the clue.

"Oh…Oh! Uh, yah, I guess taking Alec to the Infirmary would be the best thing to do," he mumbled, feeling stupid because he didn't catch what Henry was trying to say earlier. Taking Alec's arm from around his neck he let Alec stand on his own for a while, but it was obvious that he would need help from Henry to get to the Infirmary. He swayed on his feet and the dizziness was unbearable to Alec. "I think he definitely needs some time to rest," Ragnor finally said.

"Good that you agree with me." Henry acknowledged, before taking Alec's arm to help him walk to the Infirmary. "Tell Magnus that he played the situation with Brent nicely, today," he said in a hushed voice, drawing his head down to speak to Ragnor more quietly. "It's great to see that he's as put together as of lately. It seems like that depression riddled period is over, for now." Henry told him while Ragnor once again nodded.

"I will tell him that, Henry."

Ragnor moved off, leaving Alec with Henry. Alec wasn't exactly happy with being left with a guard he didn't know, but Henry seemed nice enough and he knew things that most of the guards wouldn't normally know about them or about Magnus.

_He knows about the medicine Magnus keeps. That must mean that he plays a part in getting it to him, _Alec mused to himself. _He also said that he helped get some students out of PL; does that mean he is one of the allies Magnus was talking about? _

"By your silence I'm guessing that you're trying to figure out why I am helping you like this," Henry accused, reading Alec's mind. "I don't agree with what they teach here; when I took this job I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought I was only going to help get in the security system at the school, but things happened and next thing I knew I was a full-time guard. I figured that I should at least put my new and unwanted job to good use, so I've been helping out your _friends_," Henry recalled in a hushed tone, so no one could hear them if they happened to walk by.

"So you help Magnus, Ragnor, Chaska, and Ramen?" Alec asked.

"Them especially, but I help others who need it as well."

"Nice to see that there is at least one adult here that is sane," Alec grumbled, but Henry caught what he was saying.

"I'm not the only one; there are a few others. I suggest talking to Magnus. That is the one place you shouldn't fear during your time here- in your room talking to Magnus. You were lucky enough to get such placement, but now I think you should be putting it to good use. That is my thoughts about it, anyway. Who am I to tell you who to talk to and if you should even be listening to me in the first place?" He spoke dreamily before fading off to speaking random nonsense to himself as he kept on walking towards the Infirmary, which happened to be on the very far side of the school.

Alec thought about what he had said; he still had fear- of the guards, of Valentine, of what would happen in the future- but Henry had told Alec himself that the one place he shouldn't fear was by Magnus. Henry apparently trusted him and so did the other three boys that Alec was calling his friends.

So why did Alec hesitate to trust him_? _

"What did Brent mean when he called Magnus the Devil, before he tried to attack him?" Alec suddenly blurted, one of his thoughts accidentally slipping from his mouth.

"Magnus opposes everything that is being taught to him. Firm believers in God and of what Valentine is teaching are people like Brent, along with his little band of friends and his second in command, Jackson. All of them look at Magnus as a disease- a mutation, even- of what he should be. They call him a Devil because that is what they believe he is. He won't listen and he won't give up. They think that only the Devil himself could have such stamina as Magnus to go on like he has for so long," Henry explained, but even Alec could tell that Henry didn't like talking about the topic.

"So how can you trust a Devil?" he murmured, asking himself the question just as much as he was asking Henry.

Henry didn't answer and it wasn't long until they reached the infirmary room, no one inside waiting for them. The room was dark before they turned on the dull lighting above them and it looked like the room hadn't been used for years. Beds were lined up along one wall and a long counter completely bare of anything but dust was on the other side. Random cabinets were tossed open at intervals, but they were all empty, no trace of any medicine or bandages in sight. Henry directed him over to the first bed and laid him down, Alec's bones already relaxing once he hit the sheets. He was more exhausted then he thought he would be and it wasn't just because of Brent beating on him.

Henry made sure he was comfortable and said that he would come back for him around supper time, so he could miss the rest of the classes for the day. No one would look here for him and Henry told him that he would make up an excuse for his absence during PL, mass, and Specialty. Turning towards the door and turning off the lights it looked like he was going to walk out-to let Alec rest- but at the last second he turned back.

"You have to have a lot of guts." He finally said before he exited the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Alec in darkness.

**[Break] **

"So, is there a reason Alec isn't here, Brent has a broken lip, and Magnus is more distant than normal?"

Chaska was giving Ragnor his signature pleading puppy dog eyes at the lunch table, while he practically begged for information about what had happened. The other teenager gave him a glare that clearly stated that he was annoyed, but sighed and told him anyway.

"Brent beat up Alec pretty bad- during basketball and afterwards- and Magnus threatened Brent to stay away from him. That is the condensed version, at least," Ragnor told him, also pointing to his black eye when he mentioned playing basketball against Brent and his team.

"Aw, my poor _baby_," Chaska cooed, looking around quickly before leaning across the table to give a small kiss to the purplish skin around Ragnor's eye, cupping Ragnor's face in his smooth hands lovingly.

"You sure aren't worried about making someone else jealous, are you?" Ragnor joked, trying to lighten the mood that hung over the lunch table as he pushed Chaska away from him half-heartedly. Chaska only smiled.

He was well aware of a tawny brown haired teen's affection for him; had been since the fourth day Ramen became his roommate. At first he had thought Ramen had simply looked up to him like a big brother, but over time he noticed how deep his feelings ran and Chaska hadn't agreed or disagreed that he liked the other male as well. Ramen's feelings mattered to him and it would be a bad choice to choose to play with them, so he had remained unsure for as long as he could remember.

"Not really- He knows I would never make him jealous on purpose." Chaska assured, sitting back onto his seat and taking another bite out of his side dish of fruit. The main food of the meal was what looked like grilled cheese, but everything was burnt and it was easy to tell the cheese was extremely processed, the yellow slop looking and tasting like rotten play-dough. Chaska didn't plan on touching it; even with the need for food so great there were some things he could never eat without throwing up.

"Speaking of Ramen-," Ragnor slurred, watching as the youngest of them (besides Alec, of course) came to sit down right next to Chaska, sending a small smile in his direction.

"I'm guessing that you already told him what happened with Magnus and Alec during our weekly gym class?" the teen directed at Ragnor.

Ragnor nodded. "We met Henry on the way to lunch and he took Alec to the Infirmary to get him out of classes for the day…" He hushed down when a guard walked by slowly, eyes on the three boys. When he was gone Ragnor continued. "Magnus will have to fix him up tonight if he's still hurting pretty bad, but Alec could use the rest."

Ramen and Chaska silently agreed.

"I dearly hope you all haven't missed me the last day at the lunch table. My conversation skills being legendary and all must have made this table quite dull without me here."

"Ah, yes, the prince has arrived!" Ragnor scoffed, moving over so Magnus could take a seat.

Magnus didn't reply to his obvious ridicule, but he murmured through a distasteful version of Grace before digging into his food (he also avoided the grilled cheese). A few minutes later he was drawing away from his rations, done with all that he could eat.

"Is there a reason all three of you have been staring at me while I ate?" He asked innocently, and none of them could avoid blushing by being caught by him.

"Are you sure you're okay? I know you protected Alec, but you threatened Brent. You know where that can get you if Valentine get's a hold of that information." Ramen finally said, voicing all of their worries.

"I don't fear Valentine or the place after Isolation that has only been heard about in stories and by the other guards here. I doubt it even exists," Magnus growled.

"I wasn't implying that, Magnus." Ramen squeaked.

"What he meant was that you shouldn't willingly be getting yourself into so much trouble, just to piss off Valentine or to teach Alec a lesson, or even to _impress _him, which I know you have tried to do a few times already." Chaska said, eyes growing hard as he suddenly got serious.

"How'd you guess that?" Magnus asked, caught off guard. He didn't expect Chaska to be able to pull him apart like that to see his intentions.

"It's obvious if you know what to look for." Chaska replied simply before getting up to walk over and throw his trash away, a guard watching his back the whole time.

"He's smarter than you think. You shouldn't overlook him like that- everyone seems to do it and he doesn't deserve to be underestimated like he is." Ramen whispered urgently to Magnus, before he left to go talk to Chaska as he walked back to the table, alone.

"He's right, you know," Ragnor retorted when he was out of range of hearing them.

"Who's right? Chaska when he's talking about my actions as of lately or Ramen when he accuses me of underestimating Chaska?" Magnus refuted, his perfectly shaped eyebrow rising.

"Both," Ragnor replied, getting up as well. "Just be careful; for once in your life, Magnus. I don't want you getting hurt anymore than you need to be and you don't need to pull Alec into this mess that you have made, either."

"In case you haven't noticed, we're all in this mess; _I'm _not the only one," Magnus hissed, struggling to keep his voice down as he stood up next to Ragnor, so he could look him in the eyes. "You've had to go through the same shit I have and so has Ramen and so has Chaska. Alec will go through it eventually; I'm only trying to prepare him for it!"

"Preparing is not the same as putting in harm's way. We are all going through the same thing, but there is something about you that attracts more attention, you know that? If I didn't know any better I'd say you were fucking enjoying it," Ragnor snarled and for the first time ever Magnus visibly winced and stepped away from his friend. "All I am saying is just because you enjoy taunting and getting yourself into hell of messes for the fun of it doesn't mean that you have to make the same of Alec!"

Only now did Ragnor notice that many other people in the room- students and guards alike- had stopped talking to stare, trying to make sense of Ragnor's and Magnus's conversation. He could only hope that he had kept his voice low enough that they hadn't caught onto much of what he was saying and he sat down again, gazing anywhere and everywhere except at Magnus. Magnus was smart and did have potential to bring this school down, but there was still a line in existence and unfortunately Ragnor had to be the one to point it out to him.

For the first time in his life Ragnor was glad when they were called out to physical labor, a helpful distraction from the encounter that had just occurred.

He loved Magnus in the way brothers would love their brothers, but right now he needed space from him and Magnus needed space from Ragnor, as well as time for Ragnor's words to really sink in.

**[Break]**

Magnus was tired. In the physical meaning of the word tired, but also in the emotional and spiritual part of it.

He was being led back to his room after showers for the night, flanked by two guards. Taunting would have been the normal routine, but he really didn't have it in him at the moment. PL had been exhausting as usual- which really didn't help with his energy levels, which were already depleting by that time- and mass was as boring as ever. Specialty was different; he didn't argue or fight against the guard in the room, simply said nothing and stared into space. He was thinking; about what Ragnor had said, about what Ramen had said, and about what Chaska had said. His friends were right and sooner or later Magnus would have to admit it.

The truth was already clear, in his mind.

He had also been thinking about Alec. During supper Alec still hadn't been around, but he had seen Henry sneak in and grab a plate, hopefully bringing it to Alec who was probably starving. Magnus had been harsh, some of his lessons being uncalled for. In all reality the last thing he wanted was for Alec to despise him for it. Magnus had to confess that he had some feelings for Alec and it was almost instinct to want to protect him and prepare him at the same time for what was to come. Only now had he realized how rash his actions had been, Ragnor pointing out how he was setting Alec up for failure and hell, just like he would set himself up for failure and hell. He didn't know why he did it. Some of his actions and rebellion was needed, but most of it wasn't. Why was he doing such things to himself?

The guards unlocked the entry to his and Alec's room and threw him inside. They didn't even bother to wait and see if he was completely in the room before slamming the door to lock it, meanwhile almost trapping his foot in the gap of the door and the wall. He huffed and stood up, looking around. The room was faintly illuminated by the dying sun and he was able to make out a hunched figure sitting on Alec's bed that looked as if it was waiting for him. Magnus drew in a breath, figuring out who the outline was instantly when he saw long raven hair in the face of the person.

"I think I'll accept your offer of using that cream, now."

**[Break]**

**Hopefully you all liked that long chapter! I couldn't wait to put Henry in this story, so I decided to add him in as soon as possible. **

**To people like **_**Dance Until The World Ends**_** I think you will be happy to know that I foresee a kiss in the near future ;) **

**For characters like Jordan Kyle, Francis Cooper (yes, this is one of my own characters from my imagination), Simon, and Woosly Scott, they are going to be bigger characters in later chapters, so don't worry about their roles in this chapter being their roles for the whole entire story, especially for Simon and Woosly- I didn't even include them in this chapter! **

**Also, as the last note, don't forget to comment on this chapter! My goal for this one is at least 45 reviews (overall) :)**

**P.S. I'm planning on updating my other fanfiction (Storm of Spring; another Malec fic) next, so you are welcome to check it out while waiting for the update of this story**

**~Rockwriter **


	6. Kiss

**Author's Note**

**I am so sorry that I haven't been able to get around to this fic for so long, but now that I have I am encouraged to update as quick as I can for following chapters because I've had such a long hiatus (I was extremely busy with school, my own personal problems, and putting so much work into other writings- contest writings for example) and just to dispel rumors I HAVE NOT ABANDONED THIS FAN FICTION! I think this is one of the best stories I've written so far and I have a lot to add to it, so it's definitely going to be a while before I let it go. It's that I get so busy sometimes that I have no time to write or update and it does actually take me quite a while to write my chapters, so I apologize for that because it will be quite rare if I ever have a super quick update.**

**Also, I don't know if Simon or Woolsey will be in this chapter or not; it really depends on if I want to make this chapter longer or just have it be like chapter four, with a shorter chapter of AlecXMagnus goodness and conversation. It all really depends on what I'm feeling during this chapter and when it comes time to post it.**

**[Break]**

Chapter 6- Kiss

Alec lay across his bed, his legs stretched out far in front of him and hanging off of the end; much like how he had found Magnus the first day he had come to this school. The sleep he was able to get in the Infirmary had done him some good and his brain was less foggy than before. His injuries were fading as well, but the medication that Magnus had in his possession would lessen the spikes of pain he got every time he moved. He was staring at Magnus; he had watched how the guard had practically thrown him into the room and noticed how Magnus had fallen to the cement floor. When he had gotten to his feet he had looked surprised when he finally noted that Alec was in their room and out of the Infirmary. He hadn't moved since.

"I asked if I could take you up on your offer of using that cream, Magnus," Alec repeated when the other male still hadn't replied or stirred from his standing position by the door.

Magnus seemed to snap out of his stupor and move towards him, but stopped to kneel by the vent, remove the front panel, and take out the cream without looking at the label. Instead of coming to sit by Alec he moved to his own bed.

"Come here," he said, as a way of explanation.

Alec got up from where he was laying and padded over to Magnus, sitting down in front of him. He noticed that Magnus's hair wasn't spiked up anymore and it was still wet from the showers, but he still had his clothes on from that morning. Alec only had on sweatpants; he had been trying to get more rest after he received supper from Henry, but the desert heat had been seeping into their small room. He had removed his shirt about thirty minutes ago and he hadn't realized that Magnus would be coming back from the showers so soon. Self-consciousness at being half naked in front of Magnus began to sprout inside of Alec's head and turn his cheeks red, but he knew that to get to the bruises on his ribs he would've had to remove his shirt anyway, so he tried to push the feeling to the back of his mind.

"Are you okay?" Magnus asked quietly, as he saw Alec's cheeks flare.

"Fine," Alec grumbled, but he turned more on the bed to face Magnus and raised his head, so Magnus could inspect the bruises on his ribs and torso. It was much like Magnus's injuries from Isolation, but Alec's ribs were decolorized to the point of complete blackness.

"What is bothering you?" Magnus asked, rephrasing the question.

Alec pondered his answer for a moment, but decided to respond truthfully.

"_You_," he finally said, barely a whisper. He closed his eyes briefly and lowered his head again.

Magnus had unscrewed the cap to the jar of cream and slowly began spreading it along Alec's ribs, but he stopped when he realized Alec's answer hanging in the air. He tried to lock eyes with Alexander, but he avoided eye-contact. Magnus sighed and pulled his hand away from Alec's torso, wiped it on the bed sheets, and in an uncharacteristic action for him he softly laid his fingers under Alec's chin, raising Alec's eyes to look at him.

"I know; I've been thinking about it, too," Magnus admitted. "My actions have been harsh and selfish, and I shouldn't have put you in the position that I did."

Alec nodded slightly, agreeing. He had already forgiven Magnus for trying to teach him the horrendous lesson, but it was not like Alec to forget quickly. That night he had felt somehow betrayed and knowing that Magnus had done it all on purpose made it even worse in Alec's eyes. Then today, he had pushed Alec back and fought against Brent himself, possibly getting him in even more trouble. Why did he keep on doing such things to himself? And did he even know how much his actions were affecting Alec?

"Why do you protect me?" Alec asked him suddenly, looking him in the eyes on his own will. Magnus had gone back to spreading the cream over his black, blue, and purpled chest because his fingers were no longer needed to keep Alec's eyes on Magnus while they talked.

"I see something different in you. You have a good chance of making it out, so I decided quickly to become your mentor." Magnus explained nonchalantly and indifferently.

"I never asked you to do that," Alec stated, agitation rising inside of him.

"My decision to protect you was made the very first day I saw you," Magnus told him softly, still rubbing in the cream, looking up to gauge Alec's reactions.

Alec was rapidly becoming more disconcerted. He knew that Magnus had feelings for him- that much was obvious- but why was he doing this? Protecting Alec, getting in fights with other students, egging on guards and raising hell when it wasn't needed? What was it all about?

"_Why _do you do it, Magnus? Protect me- for the most part- but you also seem to get in trouble with Brent, with the guards, with Valentine, _everyone, _for no reason at all!" Alec finally exploded, in a jumble of words. He didn't know how he was expecting Magnus to respond or react.

What he was not expecting was for Magnus to lean up and press his lips against his own.

Alec had been kissed many times in his life, for only being sixteen. He had wandered bars and clubs with a fake ID and pinpointed other homosexual teens at his school. They had all at one point kissed him; sometimes ruthlessly, sometimes eagerly, and sometimes chastely. No one had majorly stood out to him as special. He had kissed, was in relationships, had sex, and tried to bond mostly for the fun of it, but unfortunately there was never anyone serious in his life. The kisses of the boyfriends he had had still lingered in his mind, each one separate from the other with no remembrance of faces. The kisses were the only experiences remembered by Alec. He remembered all of them well, but not because they had been important. There had never been anyone's kiss that was important enough to remember the face to it.

But this was different; it was _Magnus_. His lips were on Alec's and they moved fluidly together, both of them having the experience needed to give the other small amounts of pleasure with only their lips. One of Alec's hands was clutching Magnus's shirt and the other rose to tangle in his hair, pulling at the locks.

Alec wrapped his arms completely around Magnus and pulled them closer together. At one point they had both raised and were now resting on their knees. Alec's upper body was covered with Magnus's own. For a short moment Alec thought that Magnus had to feel the racing and rapid beating of his heart through his chest. He had never felt this way kissing anyone. Their lips were colliding with each other, but yet neither of their mouths was open. They were sharing closed-mouthed kisses, but nevertheless it was breathtaking.

It was surprising how soft Magnus's lips were. Traces of lip gloss still remained on his mouth and when Alec pulled away slightly to take in a couple quick breaths of air that he needed so desperately from lack of oxygen he ran his tongue over his lips, tasting the cherry flavoring. He watched as Magnus followed the movement with his eyes. It was hard to tell, but it looked as if Magnus's eyes had dilated in the last few minutes and were now looking at Alec with a newfound hunger.

Alec should've been mad, he knew that; Magnus was skirting around answering his questions by kissing him. The kisses were great- no doubt in Alec's mind about that- but it was upsetting to know that Magnus was diverting him with lust. All it proved was how unwilling Magnus was to trust him, especially with the answer as to why he did what he did to himself.

_Maybe he doesn't even know why, _Alec mused, while he took in gulps of air after he had pulled away from Magnus's lips for the second time.

Alec made up his mind quickly; he didn't plan on kissing Magnus anymore. Not until he got what he wanted out of him.

"Kiss me," Magnus murmured- his eyes half lidded- when he noticed that Alec was no longer leaning into him to continue with their ministrations. Alec felt Magnus's hands that were wrapped around his back fall lower and pull him closer, practically begging Alec to kiss him.

"I'll kiss you again," Alec said, without hesitation. "But only when you answer my questions."

Magnus drew away from him, despondently. He had been about to lay more kisses to his roommate's cheeks and eventually his naked neck and throat. A Cheshire cat grin suddenly appeared on his face as he got a tighter hold on Alec's torso and fell backwards, making Alec land on top of him. Magnus purred and then licked up the left side of Alec's throat, hoping to distract him.

"We don't need to talk about that now," he whispered.

"Yes, _we do_." Alec glowered from his position above Magnus, not giving in to Magnus's attempts at sidetracking him. He couldn't move much, but given the opportunity he could get up and walk away from Magnus easily. The possibility was definitely settling in his mind; he wasn't going to kiss Magnus again unless he cooperated.

Magnus whimpered with Alec's reply, as Alec saw his resolve start to collapse.

"We have to, Magnus," Alec said simply while he grabbed Magnus's arms and folded them down to his sides, so they were no longer resting on Alec's back and ass. Thankfully, Magnus had given up on holding onto him so tightly, knowing that it would do nothing for either of them while Alec was set on getting answers and not continuing until what was needed to be said was spoken.

Magnus sighed and rolled his shoulders, looking away to the opposite side of the room for a few seconds until he brought his gaze back to Alec's face. He was tense; very different compared to the air of ease and desire he had had on only minutes before.

"Why do you do it?" Alec repeated, when he thought that Magnus might be ready to reply truthfully.

Magnus didn't speak; only their combined breaths made any sound in the otherwise quiet room.

It was Alec's turn to sigh. Why couldn't Magnus answer him? Since he wasn't answering any of Alec's questions it was obvious that Magnus didn't trust him. It was a given, though; Alec didn't trust Magnus either, did he? That was the whole entire reason this relationship between them might be going to hell.

"I do actually trust you, you know," Alec told him, reassuring himself just as much as Magnus. "This morning- I was going to tell you and I never got the chance. I'll admit that I had to think about it, but believe me when I say that I do trust you and I want you to trust me in return."

Magnus looked him straight in the eyes and even in the fading evening light and the growing darkness outside their window he could see the hope in them. He had wanted Alec to say that.

"Now trust _me_, Magnus," Alec propositioned, holding himself up on one hand and using the other to stroke along Magnus's face. "I want you to tell me why."

Magnus seemed to mull it over; maybe trying to find the words that he needed to use to describe exactly _why, _or he was looking for the answer to Alec's question all together.

"I don't know," Magnus replied weakly, looking away again.

Alec used his hand on Magnus's face to push their gazes back together. "Do you have any ideas, then?"

He thought about it and he was silent for a couple minutes. While he was trying to figure it out Alec resided on top of him, letting himself fall gently onto Magnus's chest while being careful not to hurt either of them. Alec pressed the side of his head against Magnus, his ear picking up the beating of his heart. It was slightly slower than what he expected, but it was a steady rhythm that Alec found comforting.

"I'll begin with why I went to Isolation yesterday," Magnus started, looking at the ceiling as Alec rested against his chest. "I wanted to set an example for you to follow and I thought I was being helpful; only now do I realize my actions were uncalled for. I also might have done it to impress you and catch your attention."

Alec raised his eyebrows at this, but Magnus couldn't see it when Alec's head was turned towards the window. Deciding not to interrupt Alec let Magnus continue.

"And when I defended you against Brent it wasn't me trying to impress you or get myself in trouble on purpose," he went on. "I saw Brent beating on you and I had this overwhelming and sudden need to protect you."

"I didn't want you to do that. I can protect myself, Magnus," Alec told him.

"I know that, but I still couldn't bear to see him doing that to you," Magnus assured, but with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Maybe I can see why you would do that, but did you really need to egg him on? Have you always done that to the staff and other students here?" Alec asked the main question that had been bothering him for so long and he raised his head to gaze at Magnus's face. "Why do you get yourself in trouble?"

Magnus looked pained, his curved green-gold eyes glimmering with something that Alec couldn't recognize and his mouth twisted up in a grimace. "I don't know exactly why I do it. I've been trying to figure it out for a while now."

"Do you do it to prove your point or because you like the attention?" Alec questioned, voicing the two theories he had thought about earlier that day.

"I guess it's a mix of both," Magnus answered, still grimacing. "Spitting back everything they've ever tried to teach me can be amusing and I think I've always had that need for attention. There's not really anything else that I can think of that would lead me to do what I've been doing."

Alec nodded in understanding and thought about Magnus's response; it seemed truthful. What did Alec expect Magnus to tell him when Magnus didn't fully know himself?

After a few moments Alec nodded again- he believed him.

A small smile quickly replaced Magnus's grimace when he saw Alec nod for the second time. His arms wrapped around Alec's torso and pulled him back on top of him, being mindful of Alec's healing bruises. Alec's legs straddled Magnus and the younger boy stiffened, if only for a moment. Magnus relaxed him though as he arched up to lay a soft kiss behind Alec's ear and lick across his earlobe as he fell back onto the pillows. The actions made Alec shiver and Magnus looked pleased with the reaction he was able to get out of his roommate.

"I've answered your questions to the best of my ability. Can I have my kiss, now?" Magnus asked while raking his nails up Alec's exposed back, not enough to hurt, but to leave behind definite red marks. Surprisingly, he stopped to wrap his arms warmly around Alec when he got near the other male's shoulders, holding onto him like Alec had. It was always soothing, being enclosed in Magnus's arms.

"I think you can," Alec replied, grinning.

**[Break]**

Magnus's POV

Alec finally leaned forward and connected their lips again. This time it wasn't the need to distract that pushed forward their kisses. Magnus knew that Alec had wanted to kiss him since the first time he met him and on the other hand Magnus had wanted to kiss Alec since he had realized how beautiful and charming the younger boy was, the urge to protect him coming from a deep inner wanting. Now, nothing was standing in their way- not the school, not their parents, and not themselves- from kissing each other with all that they had.

Magnus cared about Alec more than he realized. He had unfairly fought to not tell him the truth, but to trust him marked a significant step in their relationship. It was doubtful that Magnus would stop giving hell to the guards and Valentine- he was the Devil of the school, after all- but he had been able to open up to Alec, something that he had never been able to do before. He had never told Ragnor, or Chaska and Ramen. Something had come over him that had told him it was okay to tell Alec, and that is what he had done.

Alec had broken down his walls; Magnus had only known the boy for almost four days and he already trusted him with that knowledge about himself. He didn't know why he did half the stuff that he did and sometimes he didn't even know what he was doing. It was a miracle that he had survived the years he had lived at this damned school and on top of all that he had become the biggest threat. By kissing Alec right now he could possibly be pulling him into the deepest metaphorical hole dug in history alongside him, or Alec could be saving Magnus by helping him escape that giant metaphorical hole. Either way anything could happen. They had no control over their futures, especially while they resided at this school.

And that is what scared Magnus the most.

**[Break]**

They had lost track for how long they had been kissing. It was complete darkness outside, their room now shrouded in shadow. Locating each other by touch they had made their way under the blankets of Magnus's bed and were now sharing chaste kisses. They were lying on their sides with their arms wrapped around each other and Alec's head resting under Magnus's chin, sometimes tilted up to kiss him. Magnus had left for a few short moments a couple minutes ago to get into suitable clothes to sleep in and he had returned in only a pair of sleep pants. He had greeted him again with another kiss and lay down to pull Alec to his uncovered chest under the soft and warm covers. Since then Magnus had been kissing the top of Alec's head while slowly letting his breathing become shorter and shallower, falling into the abyss of sleep.

"Magnus?" Alec whispered, before the other male could fall asleep.

"Yes?"

"Can you promise not to protect me anymore? Or if you want to teach me anything could you at least talk to me first?" He asked, wondering if Magnus would be able to tend to his wishes. It was the only thing he needed to know before he fell asleep.

"I can't promise that," Magnus sighed. "I'll protect you when I feel that I need to."

Alec raised his head, looking at Magnus's relaxing face and drooping eyelids.

"Will you give me a chance to protect myself before you jump in?" Alec questioned, thinking that maybe Magnus would listen to reason. "I need to learn to stand on my own two feet."

"I guess I can," Magnus said, before he yawned. "And I'll talk to you when I need to, instead of keeping you out in the cold with what's happening. _That_ is something that I can promise."

Alec smiled; he couldn't help it. This Magnus that he was talking to and had kissed was so different than the Magnus that put on a façade and charade as the devilish student every time he walked out of the door. Alec liked and connected with this Magnus and he was happy that Magnus had let him see such a side of him. It made Alec want to kiss him again.

He turned his face upwards, leaving a kiss on Magnus's nose, and then lowering his head to kiss him on the mouth. Magnus sighed into his lips, enjoying the soft caresses.

"Thank you, Magnus."

And Alec wasn't only thankful for Magnus promising to talk to him, or to let him try to defend himself. It meant so much more than that. Alec was saying "thank you for opening up to me", "thank you for trusting me", and most of all "thank you for caring about me", all with those three little words.

Alec never knew if Magnus got the full understanding of his words because he was fast asleep before Alec could even finished his sentence.

**[Break]**

**I'll admit that this took way longer than I expected and that I didn't make it as long as I could've (like adding in the next morning and adding Simon, Woosley, and my other characters that I have created into the story). But I felt that you have all deserved an update and I didn't want to make this chapter extremely long.**

**I hope that I got across Magnus's softer side in this chapter and was able to ensure Alec's and Magnus's relationship. There's definitely going to be more trouble in the future, but also some small triumphs including Alec standing up for himself and achieving success alongside the arrival of a few new faces.**

**(Hint: You're all going to see some more sides of people's views of the school, also from different perspectives. Those new faces will definitely leave an impression.)**

**So keep reading, reviewing, and looking for my next update!**

**My review goal is at least 60! :D**

**~Rockwriter**


	7. Friend or Foe: Part One

**Author's Note**

**Okay, this definitely wasn't the super speedy update I had planned; my soul has practically been eating away every day I'd gone without working on this or writing anything, **_**at all**_**. I've been busy with school and the holidays has messed up my writing schedule quite a bit and I've had limited time to write. Plus, when I did have time my groove couldn't come to me through my exhaustion. Let's just say life was beating the daylight out of me and I couldn't write too much. While putting that aside I hope that all of you will enjoy this chapter. The arrival of new faces (including Simon, Woosley, and a few of my own creation) in the story should make things more interesting, and let's just say I'm starting the buildup in this chapter for a little situation for Magnus, Alec, and their gang of friends for a coming **_**situation**_** for all of them ;)**

**P.S. I've decided to break this section up into two chapters; posting the first one now and the second part when I finish editing it. It's posing troublesome for me, but I'm not going to let that hold me back from posting this chapter before the second one. **

**And I also feel like I should give some sort of recognition to HikariMelody, who sort of inspired me to create the whole entire PL scene that I have later in this chapter. In my opinion **_**Holes **_**is one of the best books ever written and I felt that it would be pretty cool to allude to it. **

**If you haven't read it, I'm sorry. **

**[Break] **

Chapter 7- Friend or Foe: Part 1 

Alec was poking at a stale and seemingly expired slab of meat that he guessed was supposed to be turkey. The rest of his lunch that consisted of a potato (which was fully skinned and dirty), an apple, and carrots had gone down easily enough with the presence of water in his esophagus, but the meat was a different matter entirely. He finally pushed the plate away from him in disgust, something he found himself doing often at the end of most of his lunches and dinners.

The only other person sitting at the table happened to be Chaska with an equally appalled look on his own face.

"I'm a vegetarian," He grumbled while he pushed the meat around his plate, not daring to take a bite in fear of some type of poisoning.

Alec smirked, knowing that Chaska was only supplying an excuse to his supposed disinterest in the rest of his food. Taking his eyes off of the complaining form of Chaska Alec turned in his seat to survey the surrounding area; given, they were quite early- being the first ones out of class and in the lunch line after both hurried from their different classrooms-, but the others of their table should have been there by now. He cast a gaze around the lunch room looking for the familiar faces of Ramen, Ragnor, and Magnus among the few milling around, either grabbing food or sitting down at tables.

_Magnus, _Alec thought dreamily, thinking about what had happened the night before. All morning long Alec could not focus on his work because he was too busy remembering the feel of Magnus's lips on his own, as well as what Magnus and he had spoken about. Being with Magnus in such a way that Alec desired was no doubt a large risk, but yet it was a risk he was willing to take. Laying in Magnus's arms and feeling the rise and fall of his chest while he peacefully slept was something that Alec craved for. It did not matter that he had only met Magnus four days ago; all that mattered was that he wanted to experience that feeling again.

_Four days- _Alec shook his head in disbelief- _such a short amount of time to fall for somebody. _

**[Break] **

"Can we sit here?"

The voice came from behind Alec, startling him. It was not a loud or demanding voice-rather it was more shy and hesitative- and it was followed with a few tentative footsteps in his direction. Alec and Chaska both took their attention quickly away from their food- which was being played with across the surfaces of their plates out of boredom- and turned to see a rather short mousy brown haired teen with glasses staring back at them. Behind him another boy stood with his face buried in his chest. The other teenager had black hair, its appearance implying that whoever had given him a haircut was hasty, uncaring, or both. He looked up slightly and gave a small smile to Alec when his eyes fell on him, but otherwise stayed out of the conversation.

"Sure," Alec replied nicely enough, though he had no idea who the two teens were or whether they would bring good or bad to their small band of misfits. The motivation of the brown haired teen to sit with them could be debatable from afar, but in the end it was the black haired, shy looking, boy that opened up Alec's mind to the possibility that they could, in fact, be friends. The boy somewhat reminded Alec of himself, especially in his younger high school years.

They moved to sit down quietly which gained them a few apprehensive stares from surrounding tables. Apparently it wasn't very often that Magnus and his group of Ragnor, Ramen, and Chaska invited an outsider into their little group. In a way they were like a clique, but they had reason to be considering the distrustful nature of some of the other boys there.

"What are your names, then?" Chaska questioned once they were settled into spots.

"Simon Lewis, and this here is Ashton Corey." The brown haired teen replied calmly, beginning to eat as well as point to the other teenager when he introduced him.

Alec saw Ashton grimace, but did not think much of it.

"What are you here for?" Alec asked, wondering what they could've done to be put in The Christian Boarding School of Roanoke Springs for Troubled and Mislead Teenagers.

_Such a damn long name, _he thought to himself while waiting for the answer from the two males.

"Well…" Simon started, while looking at his companion with uncertainty in his clear brown eyes.

"I stole a car," Ashton chimed, but not strongly, "and my parents didn't like the way I was 'turning out'. Fuck them, I say, for thinking that I am wrong." He finished with a large gulp of water and a sigh, not caring to elaborate as he cast his eyes downward again and picked up his plastic spoon.

Simon absently nodded his head- as if he approved as to what Ashton has said even if neither of the two other boys at the table understood the full meaning behind Ashton's words- before he turned to Alec.

"I grew up Jewish," he began, "but then my mother kicked me out because she couldn't even look at me after my father died. After a while I was put into an orphanage and got adopted by some rich off of drugs couple that only wanted me to make themselves look more caring. They later sent me here because they wanted to make me Christian and more 'normal '," he looked down at the table, not really in a sorrowful mood but instead a solemn one, "I think they sent me here to get rid of me for a while. They know I'll hold onto my traditions, religion, and thoughts of my real family as long as I live-"

"Chaska, Alec!" someone screamed, cutting off whatever else Simon could've said.

All four of them simultaneously turned towards the far side of the lunchroom where Ragnor had come bursting in. His eyes were wild and his skin that wasn't covered seemed to be red from exertion. Leaving no room to explain the older teenager slid to a quick stop in front of them- which earned dubious looks from the guards standing watch around the room- and grabbed the wrists of Simon and Alec, hauled them to their feet, and dashed back out into the hallway. Ashton and Chaska tagged behind them as Simon and Alec were dragged in Ragnor's firm grasp.

The hallway they reached once outside the cafeteria doors was in disarray, nothing like what it had looked like only ten minutes before when Alec and Chaska had passed through it. Other teenagers rushed by- trying to evade the carnage, as they would soon find out- and still shouts of both guards and students could be heard over the scramble. Ragnor pulled them to the very depths of it where after a moment of consideration Alec had a sneaking suspicion he knew what they would find.

Sure enough, Magnus was in the midst of the chaos. He had his body wrapped around that of Brent's sidekick, Jackson, while he was throwing punches and rough scratches at the boy's face. Magnus himself had blood dripping from his mouth-no doubt from a punch meant to shatter teeth-, but otherwise seemed to be unhurt. It was even more surprising for Alec to see Ramen alongside Magnus and holding off a furious looking Brent. Ramen was fighting like a cornered animal, twisting and kicking out of Brent's hold whenever it seemed like he was in a precarious position while at the same time managing to throw his own punches. The receding sight of the scratches along his neck that seemed to have been healing from only a day before were once again open and bruises were already appearing along his wrists, in the shape of fingerprints, where he most likely had been roughly held down in the midst of the fight at some point. Both Magnus's and Ramen's hair was sticking up in all types of directions, sweaty and flattened during the scuffle.

One of the first things that Alec was able to comprehend was the immediate peril that Ramen was in. Brent was almost a giant when compared to the thin form of Ramen; he towered over the other teenager in height and it was obvious that he was much stronger. Ramen was struggling to keep off Brent's attack on him, and it was easy to see that his few punches that he was able to throw were growing weaker. Ramen was in trouble and that is why Alec made the split second decision that he did.

Brent and Jackson wouldn't walk all over him any longer, especially when it meant that they would continue hurting his friends.

Alec jumped at Brent, not thinking of the danger that could befall him, both during the brawl and later on when he would have to face the consequences of fighting against him. Honestly, Alec had been in very few fights in his life, but he had been in enough to know when to throw the right punches. Barreling into the other teenager they sprawled onto the ground and the impact made Alec clench his teeth to keep them from rattling. The world went dark for a moment, but when he opened up his eyes again he felt a hard stab to his back, thankfully not where his previous injuries caused him the most pain. Turning onto his other side as fast as he possibly could Alec curled his left leg around the other's body, trying to get enough leverage so he could pin the stronger male to the ground. Unfortunately for him he was too slow and Alec felt himself being lifted, Brent's hands tightening around his shoulder and lower stomach. All too much like Ramen had done Alec kicked out, struggled, and at the same time he took a bite at Brent's forearm while he was within reach.

Brent hissed in pain and let go of Alec. Such an action gave Alec enough time to spin and throw his leg out to kick the stronger male in the shoulder, as well as throw a solid punch to the middle of his face for good measure. The teen was sent spiraling backwards by the impact of the blows. Alec got to his feet in the small moment of peace before Brent was coming at him again. In that time Alec had not been able to inspect his surroundings and he knew almost nothing of his friends or Jackson, much less what else was happening around him. He could only focus on Brent and the task at hand, which was keeping him away from Magnus and Ramen.

Letting out a feral growl Alec stood his ground, only twisting his footing the moment Brent was nearly on top of him. Alec played a sour trick, but one that he found much amusement in. Sticking out his foot halfway he tripped the male as he passed by, barely brushing Alec's torso. Brent fell and he did not have the knowledge to roll and avoid injury. Instead, he brought his hands out to break his fall- like any sensible person would do- and his palms connected with the cement of the hallway. A _crack _sounded from his right wrist and he grunted in anger before he curled the now almost useless limb to his chest, rising back up to his feet in front of Alec.

"You haven't won anything you damn faggot!" he screeched before he turned and walked to the side of a very livid Father Morgenstern, who seemed to have appeared as if out of thin air on the edge of their small battleground.

The word that Brent had yelled did not affect Alec as it had before; it was only a word used in appalling context which could not hurt him if he did not allow it to. On the other hand he knew that Valentine could hurt him, and that was one of the reasons why he gradually straightened his stature and uncurled his fists. His friends were safe for now from Brent and anymore fighting would only cause him more pain later when in the presence of his principal.

Now that he had the time to do so Alec looked around him. Very few people were still in the hallway, most likely fleeing from the man now patting Brent on his shoulder tenderly, as if he were congratulating a very obedient pet for coming back to his side. Those that did remain happened to be Jackson, Ashton, Simon, Magnus, Ragnor, Ramen, and a selected few that were watching the scene unfold from the safety of the cafeteria doors. Ashton had a smug look of achievement on his face while he sat on top of a squished Jackson, who was wiggling to try to get out from under him but was failing pathetically. Magnus was leaning against Ragnor who looked on with a serious expression, arms crossed and hazel eyes unfaltering. Blood was being wiped from Magnus's mouth onto the skin of his wrist, which was then smeared onto the blackness of his shorts where it no longer appeared. As he noticed Alec gazing at him he raised his eyes and offered up a small smile, red staining his bottom teeth. Ramen seemed in worse condition; he was resting against Simon's shoulder while the brown haired boy pressed a strip of his shirt's material to the other boy's neck to stop the bleeding scratch marks that had been reopened in the fight. The teen that Alec had jumped in to help seemed absolutely exhausted. Chaska was close by and was rubbing small and tender circles into Ramen's shoulder to try to comfort him, a daring move in front of Valentine who only stood a couple feet away. Thankfully for them- but not exactly for Alec- Father Morgenstern was more focused on the one who had injured his little pet.

"What do you think you are doing, Alexander?" The man hissed, his eyes cold and heartless.

Alec had to think. Get in more trouble for admitting to his attack on Brent or say that he was helping his friends, which could quite possibly pull them down with him. Either way Alec was going down; there was no denying it. The choice of what to say seemed evident to Alec.

"He should not have been beating on them like that," Alec replied, "I was teaching him a lesson."

Brent's dark eyes- still full of rage and animosity- glared at him from behind Valentine's back.

"The only lessons taught at this school are provided by us. I think it is about time _you _learn that," Father Morgenstern claimed before he turned to where the other teenagers were standing. "Ashton Corey, release that boy at once. Then all of you leave; be grateful that I am only punishing one of you, for it is easy to tell more were involved."

Absently, Alec watched as Ragnor nodded his head and began to lead the group back to the cafeteria. They all cast fleeting glances over their shoulders, no doubt wondering about Alec's soon to be determined fate. Magnus once again gave Alec one of his soft smiles that Alec had found that he only reserved for him and Alec replied with a smile of his own that he hoped was reassuring. Ashton- who was still pinning Jackson to the ground- huffed and got up from his sitting position before he followed the rest out into the lunchroom, but not prior to giving a slight kick to the side of Jackson's head on his way out in retaliation. Jackson stood, but did not complain or speak as he walked away. Now there was only Father Morgenstern, Brent, and Alec in the seemingly claustrophobic hallway.

"Do you have anything to say to defend yourself, or to put reason behind your actions?"

Valentine was playing with him; he knew Alec had no way of putting cause to his actions that wouldn't end in things being worse than they already were.

"No, Sir," Alec replied, calmly while he stared the man in the eyes.

"Then two days in Isolation for your actions," Valentine declared, like a king giving a misfortunate pheasant his sentence.

"I _hardly _think that is appropriate."

Staring past Morgenstern Alec found his eyes admiring another man approaching, in the dress of a guard and looking slightly familiar. His straggly blonde hair appeared to come down to his shoulders and green eyes seemed to dance with a youthful mischief. He was tall, slender, and to Alec's relief he saw that behind the other man Henry was wavering around the doors of the lunchroom. As he approached the smell of smoke wafted off of him- reminding Alec of the men he'd met in bars while he was out during those cold and lonely nights- and his presence seemed to put some type of hold on Valentine, even though Alec thought that quite a thing would be next to impossible.

"They were only tussling, Valentine. Happens all the time among the other boys here; we guards break up fights all the time. They're already wearing the broad arrow as my mother would say," the newcomer exclaimed, "My point is that there's no reason for this boy to go to Isolation because of a petty fight."

"Scott, you did not see what _he_ did," Father Morgenstern proclaimed, pointing at Alec. "He struck this poor boy here; kicked him, punched him, and bit him, too! You cannot tell me that that doesn't earn him Isolation," Valentine answered the man, barely restrained anger boiling beneath his words.

"You didn't see those other boys either, did you?" Scott sneered, not afraid to contradict the other man. "One's bleeding from the gums and the other is bleeding from the neck, and this one has already got bruises made by that same boy that is your little _pet_ yesterday, already. Let the damn boy go. There's nothing more for him here."

For once Alec saw Morgenstern squirming and having an internal battle with himself over Alec's doom. This man that had come up alongside him was able to do that and even though Alec was never one to find joy in another's discomfort he had to admit that he enjoyed the sight.

"Bring him back to lunch," Valentine cursed through his teeth before walking swiftly away.

With a similar look of hatred upon his face Brent soon made his leave as he followed after Father Morgenstern.

The man of blonde hair apparently called Scott gave a quiet little whoop- almost to himself- before he wrapped a long arm around Alec's shoulders and directed him towards the cafeteria with a clever yet victorious smile upon his face. Alec was weary of this man- like how he had been weary of Henry- and kept sending sideways glances towards him. As they continued to walk the man began to speak.

"Your friends are smart, boy; they came straight to me and Henry once they got back and knew what was going to happen to you," Scott inclined, making conversation.

Only then did Alec realize why the man was familiar; Alec had seen him before during Valentine's morning "pep-talk". He always stood at the end of the hall as if overlooking everyone, including the guards. Alec predicted that he had to be high up on the rungs of the ladder in this place and maybe an advisor or leader of the guards.

"If you could get me out of Isolation now why couldn't you get Magnus out of it a few days ago?" Alec questioned, the exact inquiry coming to him out of nowhere; suddenly, as if from the very back of his mind.

"Depends on opportunity, the misdemeanor, and the teenager," Scott listed out, and that was apparently enough explanation.

They reached Henry who gave Alec a smile and dip of his head before he followed them into the now packed dining hall. Woosley immediately unhooked his arm from around Alec's shoulders and gave him a quick slap to his butt to push him forward. Alec was caught off guard and jumped– feeling slightly uncomfortable with the action-, but he continued on to his table without a retort at the man. He had saved him from Isolation, after all.

As he sat down at their regular table Magnus grasped his hand underneath it and ran his thumb along the hollows of his knuckles. Magnus's touch was warm and soft, far from when Alec had seen the exact same hands throwing punches and scratching at skin. The other male grinned at him and Alec knew that if they had been at a different place at a different time Magnus would've kissed him and they would have talked intimately in that moment. But they were in front of countless guards and other teenagers, including the new ones sitting at their table, joining their band of brothers, and currently becoming their friends. Simon and Ashton had already proven themselves such in Alec's mind from what he had seen; Ashton taking down Jackson and Simon caring for Ramen as if a protective mother. That was already enough for friendship in Alec's mind.

Too soon, lunch had ended and they were off into the desert heat to dig holes.

**[Break]**

"Do you think we're looking for Stanley's great-grandfather's treasure that was buried by Kissin' Kate Barlow? Bet we could've found it before those Walkers ever did."

"That story took place in Texas, dumbass."

"Who the hell knows where we are? It could easily be Texas."

"It's unlikely."

Alec was getting tired. His shoulder's ached, his lips were bone dry, and the sand that was being tossed up around his legs was like tiny pricks of needles every time they hit. In the back of his mind a small voice was whispering how better Isolation would have been compared to this, but he pushed away that idea before it had any more time to form in his head. No, this was better; he was around friends and not under the complete control of guards and Father Morgenstern. All he had to do was keep digging his shovel into the ground, lift, toss, and repeat. _Dig, lift, toss…Dig, lift, toss…. _

"Are you doing okay there, Alec? You're getting that distant look."

Stopping his motions and looking to his right Alec saw Ragnor, nearly chest deep in his own hole. His shirt was tied around his head like a turban and he was resting against his shovel with a bored look on his face. There were blisters on his hands that seemed worse than Alec thought possible in the light of the desert sun and Ragnor's pale body seemed to be cooking in the heat, already establishing a tint of brown, but it was mostly red and agitated. Despite his current demeanor there was concern in his eyes.

Alec knew why; he had barely dug three feet into his own area of land and he was already tiring easily. He wasn't used to this kind of labor everyday and the surrounding elements and terrain weren't exactly helping. Not liking to depend on other people to do his work for him he had not fallen to pairing up with someone else and sharing the weight of digging two holes together like others had been doing. No, he would dig his own damn hole. His friends had already helped him during PL the first time; he wasn't going to let them do so again when it wasn't needed.

"Doing fine; just need to pick up the pace a tiny bit," Alec breathed, taking up his shovel to continue while hoping Ragnor accepted his answer.

The other teen nodded, disappearing into the space he was standing in for a second before a flurry of sand and dirt jumped up and onto the growing pile beside the space he occupied.

Alec dug too, gaining comfort and strength through the voices around him. Magnus was near- no doubt already almost done digging his six foot deep hole- and his laugh filled the open air every now and then during his conversation with Ashton. Ragnor and he spoke on regular intervals when Alec found he could catch his breath long enough. Simon and Ramen had paired up and were already working fast through digging their second hole; they were close by as well, and Alec guessed that Chaska wasn't far off, either. Their group had set about digging away from the rest of the teenagers, but that did not matter to them. It gave them freedom to speak to each other.

"Seriously though, you have to see the similarities. Brent is obviously X-Ray, a completely unlikeable one. We're digging holes in the middle of a desert, with mountains far away in the distance. Bet you one of them has Sam's onion field on it."

"Find me a lipstick tube and I'll believe you."

"Darling, you know I could easily plant that for him."

Even when wiping the sweat from his brow and feeling the calluses form on his skin Alec still found that he had the will to smile.

**[Break]**

It was time for Specialty classes. Mass had gone easily enough; Alec settled into his daydreams and zoned out Father Morgenstern's teachings while going along with the simple motions without thinking about it. Now, he was once again alone with two guards flanking him and leading him to an unknown destination somewhere in the school. Knowing which Specialty class he was going to was impossible to guess. He'd been to the Specialty for homosexuality so far, but he had missed yesterday's class. For all he knew the classes could be flip-flopped, or in a specific order. He had the "straight" schedule- as the guards had informed him- so that meant that such Specialty classes could be of more importance in his weekly routine.

Thankfully, that was not the case for today. Alec allowed a small sigh of relief when he was pushed into a room with people and contents that he hadn't familiarized himself with for the homosexuality Specialty. Inside the small area- which Alec guessed was a now unused classroom- a few students sat in a circle, like how Alec had experienced Specialty before. In the middle of the ring of people lay a miniature table, a puff of smoke rising from an ashtray situated near the center. The cigarette- that had only recently been snuffed out by the looks of it- sent a putrid and unmistakable stench unto its surroundings. Alec hated the smell and fought the urge to raise his arm and cover his nose to block it out as he took his seat.

He allowed himself a moment to look around. One of Brent's goons was sitting with his arms crossed over his chest, seemingly conflicted over being angry or not that he was in the room. His sharp gaze made Alec turn from him instantly, even if he hadn't been scared of the other boy. It did not seem as he posed a threat to Alec- not here- but his eyes immediately displayed a "leave me the fuck alone" kind of attitude. His dark blonde hair contradicted his yellowish green eyes; not a bit like Magnus's, Alec noticed. The other students in the room seemed to be in similar mindset- a stay away from me sort of mood- or looked rather uncomfortable.

"I see we have all of our students here now- about time to start teaching."

Alec watched in surprise as Scott made his entrance through a door at the other end of the room. He was puffing on a cigarette and as the students continued to observe he took a drag and blew upwards, twisting his neck so his face was parallel towards the ceiling. A perfect ring formed in the air in the smoke he exhaled and his mouth twisting into a smirk was all Alec needed to know that the man was showing off. Strolling to the small table he snuffed out the cigarette alongside its kin and took a seat on top of a desk, letting his legs dangle and fingers begin to rap on his knee.

"So," he started, with a rare gleam in his eyes. "I see that we have Alexander joining us today."

Alec nodded in resignation, but did not find any words to say.

"This is Specialty class for tobacco addiction, or smoking," Scott gestured to the ash tray, "As you can see I'm probably not the best to teach how to get over addiction, but it's not like any one of us has a choice in the matter."

Murmurs rose from the surrounding circle, none of them exactly comprehensible.

"Let's start with this; smoking is not something that you want to continue with. Might feel good right now, but you'll regret it in the future," Scott told them, but from the collective rolling of eyes around the room Alec was able to guess that most of such Specialty classes started this way. "And all of you- even if you're in this hell hole to begin with- I believe are capable men, able to achieve what you set your mind to."

It was startling to hear words of actual meaning coming from one of the guards- as well as teachers- of someone at the school. Scott was different, and from the occurrences of earlier that day it was also given that he was trusted among Magnus and the others of Alec's table. That meant that there was more to this guard that Alec wasn't seeing, but deserving of his respect.

"I am not one of those capable men; it has been too long for me and such a drug as this lays waste to your body, eventually," Scott sighed, and there was sadness in his gaze. "Do not end up like me, working at a job you hate for cheap pay because there's nowhere else that will take you, wasting your salary on cigarettes and lottery tickets that you hope could give you a better life. Here's the thing, boys; lottery tickets and chance never works. You want something you have to get it done yourself and have the capacity to do so."

Scratching a hand through his mane of blonde locks Scott got up from his perch, stepping forwards to the ashtray in the center of the circle of boys. Surprisingly, it seemed like many of them were paying attention. Alec was not a smoker as his parents had predicted, but that did not mean that what Scott was saying was not truth and shouldn't be taken to understanding.

Picking up one of the still smoldering cigarettes he held it up by his thumb and pointer finger, entrusting everyone to see it. Its odor still eclipsed through the air, curling around nostrils and for Alec, at least, pausing breath. Others looked on with desperation, disgust, and everything in between.

"If you're going to continue, you're going to let _this_," He paused before flinging the small bundle down into the ashtray with revulsion, "hurt you and probably kill you."

Almost all of the students were staring at the floor, even Brent's goon was sticking to his gaze upon the cracks and streaks of linoleum and cement.

"Look at me; all of you."

Alec did so without hesitation because the man demanded it to get his point across and he was not about to disregard that. Some students he saw had a difficult time bringing their gazes forth, but Scott waited until all sixteen eyes were on him.

"None of you need to end up like me. I get that you're in this school right now, not the best way to live out your teenage years, but that doesn't mean that afterwards you need to continue as you have before," Sharp looks from some of the students made him explain further. "I'm not talking about religion or sexuality; all I'm talking about is addiction. I don't give two shits about what you believe or who you like and sleep with, I just don't want to see good men like all of you in this room ending up addicted for the rest of your lives." Scott finished, looking at each boy individually.

"I see some of you going through withdrawal; I see some of you getting better, too," He continued. "There are two sides to this fight and I can only help you on one front. You have to decide how to fight the harder fight."

Scott had been standing with his hands clasped behind his back, talking while looking around to see everyone listening. With a small nod he acknowledged the attention to his words and turned to go to the door and open it, air coming into the room that had been filling with the bitter aroma of smoke. Coming back he picked up the ashtray and gestured towards the exit with his other hand.

"I do not need an hour to describe and hope you understand my reasoning. Take early leave; I'll make sure that guards allow you to your rooms before supper starts," Scott told them as he began to walk towards the other door in which he had entered earlier.

As the other students began to file out of the room- each with a somber look- Alec turned back to Scott and called out to him before he had a chance to disappear.

"Call me Woosley, Alec," he explained, coming back to him.

"I only wished to say thank-you; for this morning and getting me out of Isolation," Alec said, the words coming from the back of his mind quickly. They had been sitting there all day and he took the opportunity to get them across.

"Your welcome," he accepted, "but know that sometimes I may not have the chance to intervene in the future."

Alec nodded, understanding. That seemed enough to end the conversation between them as well because Woosley turned on his heel and began walking for the door again. The movement of his hand drew Alec's attention and he saw him pull another cigarette from his pocket, setting the ashtray in his other hand down to draw a lighter from his jacket.

In moments he disappeared through the other door leaving the waft of smoke in his wake.

**[Break]**

**I know that this chapter is not exactly enough to make-up for my long absence, but hopefully it lessens the dislike a little bit. Also, I think you will all be happy to know that from this chapter onward I will start replying to reviews again; I miss talking to people! The responses will be contained in the coming update, which I'm planning to have out in another week. It will definitely include more Malec interaction, since they don't have much alone time in this chapter. Also, more Francis to come, along with more characters! (I have a lot written in my journal) **

**Favorite, follow, and review! I accept constructive criticism and I often look at ideas, even if I'm always going to follow the main plot line that I already have planned out. **

**~Rockwriter **


	8. Friend or Foe: Part Two

**Author's Note**

**Here it is; the second part of my seventh chapter. I found some parts in it harder to write, but I felt that all scenes were necessary for the plot and development of this story. Thankfully, I was able to get this chapter out earlier than my last and I think that it lives up to expectations. **

**Replies to reviewers are at the bottom of this chapter section :) **

**[Break]**

Chapter 8- Friend or Foe: Part 2

Alec spent the time given to him before supper straightening out and cleaning the room that he shared with Magnus. He dared not touch most of what was on Magnus' side in fear of the other teenager coming after him for moving everything around into an order that was unfamiliar and so that he could not find any of his belongings. Also, Alec did not know what Magnus was hiding within his furniture and he dared not find out before proper locations of such items were shown willingly. He spent his time evening out the covers of their beds and locating specific articles of his clothing, as well as picking out an outfit for the next day.

Supper went well; there were no guards overly observant of their table or conversation. The food for that night was macaroni and it was unsurprising that much of the cheese hadn't melted and the noodles were overcooked to a mushy state. It was better than most of the other food at the school, though; it didn't pose any immediate health threats like many of the other meals and it actually had adequate taste. Not having meat was another benefit. Alec was honestly surprised that no one had yet to fall to sickness from undercooked or raw meat, or disease caused by mold or dirt. He took the meal as a sign of good fortune and enjoyed it immensely among the company of his friends, which put him in a better mood.

Showers brought some reality back down upon Alexander, forcing him to remember recent events. He mostly kept his eyes to the ground or wall in front of him- for he did not want an accident to _arise _caused by him looking around- but a small whimper to his left caused him to find the source of obvious distress. Ramen was trying in vain to clean the cuts along his neck that had reopened under the spray of water, the swirl of red in clear water going down the drain along the floor an almost gruesome sight to Alec, even if it was little. The bruises on his wrists were prominent and he was glaring at the wall with both distaste and hatred. Alec wouldn't be surprised if the wall melted under the heat of his gaze.

Chaska was at a distance, watching his roommate with displeasure and a sorrowful expression on his face while he absently cleaned himself from the day's grime. Alec saw how much he wanted to come over- make sure of Ramen's current health- but both of them knew that such action would be detected and arouse suspicion. Alec caught Ramen's interest instead and inclined his head in Chaska's direction. Steel grey eyes lit up for a moment and he turned to mouth something to the other male standing merely ten feet away. Ramen turned back with a sad smile, his expression not telling Alec much.

Chaska let his attention to his friend fall as well and ocean blue eyes became unreadable as he turned away.

After reclaiming his clothes Alec got dressed and made his way with Ragnor and Simon- along with a guard who followed them closely behind- to the floor with their chambers. Simon peeled off to the right immediately; going into a room he no doubt shared with Ashton at the top of the stairs. Ragnor left his side a little over halfway down the hall, joining a roommate that Alec did not yet hold acquaintance with. Upon opening his own door at the end of the hall he was greeted with the sight of Magnus.

Beautiful as always he was laying cupping his jaw and writing something in one of his many notebooks, while another book- which looked to be called _A Tale of Two Cities_- lay open nearby. The light on his dresser was on -as well as a lamp on Alec's own nightstand- which added an almost comfortable feel of coziness to the room, even if the ever-seeking coldness of the night was upon them.

All of a sudden the feeling of want and Magnus's undivided company was taking hold of Alec again. How he had craved to kiss him after his return to their table or when he wanted to share intimate conversation with him but could not. He held back his feelings though, his shyness that hadn't surfaced for some hours in the last few days making a reappearance.

"May I join you?" He asked timidly, mildly gesturing towards where Magnus was laying.

"Don't even ask, my dear," Magnus smiled as he patted the spot right beside him while he moved to reposition his notebook and close the novel that had been lying open.

Alec grinned before he let one of his knees hit the bed and he fell into place beside Magnus. He nuzzled into his roommate's neck, unconsciously wrapping his arms around him. The tickle of Magnus's wet black locks against his face was a new touch, but he welcomed it. He let his body relax and his breathing steadied slowly but surely.

"Were you hurt in the fight? It did not seem like it, but I want to make sure," Magnus asked after a few moments of comfortable silence.

"Nope; not even a scratch," Alec replied, almost proud of the achievement, "What of you, though?"

"The stupid fuck came at me from behind and punched me in the mouth," Magnus growled, but with low anger in his voice as he turned his head to show a line of growing bruises against his jaw line. "My gums only bled for a tiny bit; otherwise, he couldn't cause me much injury."

Alec smiled happily; it seemed as though both of them made it out of the fight without major damage. Ramen probably had it the worst, but even his wounds would fade quickly, given time.

"How did you know to send Woosley to come and help me? He saved me from Isolation."

"I have known Woosley Scott since the first day I arrived here; he was the one who came and got me from the airport," Magnus explained, cuddling up to Alec for further comfort. "He's a lot like Henry and Ralph in the way that they can get you what you need and could actually be considered good people," He paused for a moment, as if thinking. "Well, that's debatable when it comes to Ralph."

"He seems like a good man," Alec told him, referring to Woosley.

"There is more to him than most expect," Magnus agreed, "but he's not exactly what could be considered good."

Alec raised his eyebrow as he looked up into Magnus's eyes, although the other male did not care to elaborate.

"Is there any guard that can be fully trusted?"

"Not here, not now," came the reply from Magnus. "We're playing with fire sometimes when we ask tasks of them. We don't know if they can be trusted to be accepting of what we give to them in return, or if we can put faith in them being good people."

Alec let his head raise higher, looking Magnus in the face.

"What do you give to them? It's not like you have much that they could want," Alec whispered, scandalously wondering if what he was thinking about was true.

"It's different for each guard," Magnus faltered slightly and Alec could tell that he was choosing his next words carefully. "Henry doesn't want much; he's a nice man, but can't be trusted because of his current position with Valentine. He might turn on us if Valentine forces him to; otherwise I think he would be quite reliable. Woosley and Ralph are…_ different _prospects."

Alec gripped him by the chin- carefully, as not to agitate his bruises or hurt him- but to keep their gazes together.

"What do they make you do?" he questioned with sudden urgency.

Magnus sighed, closing his eyes and opening them again when he exhaled. "They don't make us do anything; they put in perfectly reasonable prices and we decide if what we want is worth it or not."

"Give an example," Alec growled, growing bold. This is Magnus, but that doesn't mean that he can hide this from him. Not when there is risk involved.

Magnus cracked; he would not hide this from Alec any longer.

"My make-up, books, paper, trivial things; they don't make us pay for those. They give them to us and what we do with them is what can get us in trouble or not, so they don't care. But things like medicine and information…they cost more because they know that we need them," Magnus tried to turn away then, but Alec held him in place.

"_Please_, Magnus," Alec begged, "What do they make you do?"

Magnus shook his head. "You already know; it's not that hard to figure out or guess."

"What did that medicine in the vent cost you, Magnus? What did you have to give?"

In surprise Alec noticed that Magnus was the closest he had been to crying as Alec had ever seen him. His eyes were growing watery- seemingly out of nowhere- and his gaze that was still holding Alec's was holding fear as well. This is one of the things that had scathed him at this school.

"It cost me a lot, and it was worst because it was Ralph."

Alec thought of the man that had brought him here. The man that was rough and that twisted up his arm so much that he had wanted to scream in agony. Magnus had said the first day they met that he was dumb, that he was all bark and no bite. That he wouldn't really hurt them. That he would do anything as long as you would promise him something in return. Back then Alec had no idea that it would be what Magnus was now alluding to.

"They take you down to the room by Isolation, the one farthest away from Valentine's chambers and the classrooms," Magnus continued, not waiting for Alec to respond now that he had begun his small story. "There's not much in there; a bed, lamp, a sink. They use you to the point you agreed to, whether that be beating you and using you as a personal punching bag or using you for sexual purposes. Sometimes they use you more than you agreed to if you can't fight back and afterwards they drag you back to your room and leave what you wanted by your door. That's all there is to it."

Alec was looking at him in disbelief. He had let them do such things to him only for the promise of medicine or information?

"For medicine that you don't even know exists until they give it to you afterwards?" Alec whispered harshly to him as if they were huddled in a room full of people that could rip them apart for talking about what they were, instead of in their own chambers.

"We expect Woosley to stay true to his word because underneath he could still be a fair man. But Ralph and some of the other guards you never know," he finished, letting a few stray tears finally fall from his eyes, although he then hurriedly tried to swipe them away with the back of his hand.

Alec knew it was his turn to comfort. That is what Magnus had done multiple times the last few days, and now it was time he took up the same responsibility of comforting one that he cared for. He suddenly didn't know how they had gotten onto this topic, but now that they had he could see how much it affected Magnus. Alec drew him into his arms, letting Magnus's head rest upon his shoulders while he began to brush through his hair that was still damp from the showers. He tried to soothe, breathing useless but all the while calming words into his ear while lightly kissing his temples and cheek.

When he had calmed Alec forced himself to ask another question.

"Magnus, how many of you do this; how often?"

Magnus steeled himself in Alec's arms.

"A lot of boys; we do it when we need specific items. Fortunately, it seems as though Woosley favors Ragnor, Ramen, and I more so than others," Magnus once again hesitated, thinking greatly about his next words. "That one occurrence with Ralph was an accident- a mistake."

Curling into his side Alec felt that Magnus did not want to talk about the subject any longer and he respected that. He would not force him to answer anymore of his questions, but it was certain that he would bring up the topic at the table or among Ragnor and Ramen. Why had they kept this from him? What other secrets remained hidden that he had yet to know about? It was odd as well that Magnus had not mentioned Chaska; the black haired boy most certainly knew about the acts, but for some reason not participating. And then there was Woosley and the other guards to think about.

Scott had seemed like a good man, even with his addiction to cigarettes and employment to Valentine. He had hardly struck Alec as the type to use boys that had no other choice, taking advantage of their unfortunate downfalls when they were the most vulnerable. In a way he grouped Woosley along with Henry; men that were good, but could not be trusted because of their current positions in the school. Never could he have expected such to come from him. On the other hand it was easy to see that Ralph was a parasite; the way he acted and ruled. Alec was not shocked to find out this truth about him. In a way Alec had guessed that the man was crueler than even he had first registered.

Magnus was stuck like glue to Alec's side, curled tightly against him. Alec had never thought that he would be one to cry, even those few tears that he had let fall. He came to the conclusion that all that they had shown was hurt and unsettlement- not weakness. Never would tears be a sign of weakness.

Though he hated it Alec soon had to get up to turn off the lamps that spread light throughout the room; they did not need guards knocking down their door to tell them to go to sleep or to risk going to Isolation. Magnus whined when he left his side, but he quickly returned and laid a small, comforting, kiss to his brow. Alec did not bother changing into is nightclothes; doing so would only delay return to Magnus's side. In the darkness he held him close, willing the other man to fall into peaceful and hopefully calm sleep while Alec stayed awake. The sounds of the desert, wind, and night enclosed around them, as well as the disconcerting _clack _of guard's shoes pacing up and down the hall every thirty minutes. The unsettling sound was soothed once Magnus's breathing evened and he fell asleep, Alec's arms still wrapped tightly around him. Coldness of the night did not reach them; their combined body heat underneath the covers Alec had cocooned them in keeping them comfortable.

For a small moment Alec was content. Staying awake, listening to the sounds of the night and of Magnus's breathing, all while enveloped in the warmth of their shared bed. But such feelings of ease could not last; unfortunately reality was never far from mind. They were _here_; at a school that at times could seem bearable, but at other times could seem like a living hell. With a man that he had so swiftly fallen for and friends that he had a feeling could never quite tell him everything, and no idea how to possibly protect them or himself. And there was no hope of getting out-not for them. He already knew that fact, but yet it showed itself again, a constant thought at the back of his mind.

Alec did not fall to sleep throughout the night, dreadful thoughts appearing and disappearing inside his head like the wakes of the ocean.

**[Break] **

Chaska had cleaned the wounds along Ramen's neck before taking his bruised and stinging wrists into his palms and massaging them. There was no better way for Chaska to treat the other student's injuries, yet he wished that he had the power to heal them within seconds so they could no longer cause harm upon the boy that was closer to him than a brother. He knew of Ramen's feelings for him and to say they were reciprocated was not far from the truth. Though in a different way, it would seem.

"Are you okay?"

Chaska had thought the younger boy was asleep now, but apparently he was incorrect. Ramen was leaning on his arm and staring over at him, his grey eyes looking ominous in the dimness, but still containing a dull sparkle. His short brown hair was in disarray- most likely from laying on it when it was still wet- and his body language told Chaska that he was curious, yet held deeper purpose behind his question.

"I'm fine; go back to sleep, Ramen," Chaska told him, encouraging the other to lie back down in bed again and get much needed rest.

"Something is bothering you," he continued to pester, not being lenient.

"There's nothing wrong."

"You're a terrible liar; have you ever noticed that you twitch?" Ramen pointed out with seriousness in his gaze, even with his joking tone.

Chaska chuckled slightly, knowing that he could not win this battle; Ramen would always know when he was lying or not. He stopped when Ramen made to get out of bed and make his way over to him. With a sharp look Chaska stopped him in his tracks.

"You need sleep- you shouldn't worry about me."

Ramen crossed his arms over his chest and puckered out his bottom lip.

"I don't need sleep as much as I need to know what's keeping you awake," Ramen argued. "Only when you sleep can I dream, too. You should know that by now."

On silent feet Ramen made his way over to him. Chaska was sitting up in bed, cross-legged and staring at the opposite wall with some strands of his dark hair falling into his eyes. The lights were out and the desert chill was beginning to settle in the room, yet Chaska was bare from the waist up. He said that he couldn't sleep any other way.

Ramen sat next to him, their legs rubbing together as he flung an arm over Chaska's shoulders and pulled him into a tight side hug. With a sigh Chaska relinquished and wrapped his own limb around Ramen which pulling them together even more.

"I should've been there. You were all alone and I couldn't help you."

Ramen snorted, a small laugh light as a feather drifting on a summer's breeze escaping him.

"I was not alone- Magnus was with me and I can fend for myself, even against Brent. This was not your fault so stop feeling guilty about it," Ramen assured, smiling in the darkness. "I'm fine."

Slowly, Chaska nodded acceptingly. He believed Ramen- always would- and it was true that Ramen knew him better than anyone else. Yet, guilt was a powerful emotion; especially when it wasn't addressed quickly and it had been eating at him throughout the day until this moment. Fortunately, Ramen always knew what to say to appease Chaska's worries.

"Thank you," he said, knowing that Ramen would understand the full intent of his words.

Gazing back at him Ramen grinned again before getting up and going over to his bed. He wrapped himself tightly in the blankets there, his injuries thankfully not causing major pain as he shifted around enough to get comfortable. With a last look at Chaska he let his muscles relax as he burrowed into the mattress and nearly disappeared under the mounds of blankets. Chaska followed suit, gathering his body into a tight ball around his pillow and throwing the layers of cover over his body, settling in.

"Good night."

**[Break] **

**I know, I know; extremely short. But hopefully this chapter helped sort out the positions that some of these boys (including Magnus, Ragnor, and Ramen) have been put into and also that this chapter helped to explain the bond between Ramen and Chaska. I knew that doing a complete section of a chapter with only reference to personally created characters was risky, but it seems like a lot of people have liked their pairing so I gave it a go. **

**Now, I'm asking for your opinions because I have been debating this- **

**Should I continue making chapters like this one (only around 3,000 words) that are shorter- and my story can therefore be updated quicker- or should I make updates like what some of my other chapters have been (around 6,000 words)? Maybe a mix of both would be good? **

**Honestly, I don't know what to decide on. I think it depends on what I will be including in the plot line and chapters later on, but your opinions are still greatly valued. **

**To the reviewers (of chapter 7): **

**[To Mads-hatter-15**

_I find that journals are almost always the very beginnings of a story; I never just start writing it- I at least have to have some of the details down and planned before I begin. It's great to hear that other writers keep journals, too. It's common, but I still feel like I'm somewhat weird with all the notes I write down about my own stories. _

_And it's amazing to hear how I've inspired you! Your story "Why Alarm Clocks were Invented" has been on my 'continue reading' list for a while now, and I have to say that your creativity has inspired me as well. That's the unique thing about writers; we learn from and inspire each other. I take pride in my original storyline and flow of my story- as you have pointed out- and it's great that you've noticed the work I've put into it. Thank you for the review! _

**[To HikariMelody **

_It might seem like sometimes this fic has been forgotten, but until I plainly say "This story is discontinued" I will continue to work on it and update. Sometimes I get incredibly busy and these last three months including the following month have been and are sure to be hectic. It's sad, but I rarely have time to write anymore, and when I do I'm exhausted. So sorry about the worry of discontinuing this story, but I promise you that I'm trying my best to update and continue with this fanfiction. _

_Also, let's just say that some of your guesses for what is going to happen are rather close to the truth. _

_And yes, the bromance is showing! I love writing bromance, almost as much as romantic relationships. You mentioned that you like Ashton, too; there are many surprises in store for his character, I must say. _

**[To Guest 1**

Holes_ is a rather remarkable and amazing piece of literature, and I sort of felt I should allude to it in the story not because it fit, but also because I feel it should be recognized more. It is ingenious writing, in my opinion. _

**[To Guest 2**

_After this chapter and ones to come it can be debatable if Woosley is a nice character. Deep down he might be a good man, but I'll leave that up to readers to decide. _

**[To V.I.D. Vishii **

_Lovely to know that you love it so far! As for a kiss in PL or lunch you'll have to wait and see; there's always the possibility, when the guards aren't looking ;) _

**[To CapnKYT **

_Nice to see that you appreciate the plot line and my story; I've worked hard on it! Hopefully, with this chapter the relationship between Ramen and Chaska is clearer. They aren't dating or in a romantic relationship (although Ramen does harbor feelings for him), but their practically in a brotherly love friendship that is stronger than almost any other bond. As for characters like Ragnor he currently isn't in a "more than friendly" relationship with anyone, but that can always change in coming chapters. As of right now he's in the strongly knit group of friends, but that's as far as his feelings go for any of the other characters. _

**[To Cessation **

_Updates are always going to be shaky when it comes to consistency and swiftness, but I'm trying my best so hopefully there won't be any super long waits for updates anymore. Thanks for enjoying my story! _

**I'm thinking I'll be able to start writing more coming up (summer break in a couple weeks), so hopefully that means more updates in less time. I've been terrible with updating this story, and I admire all of you that have stuck with me and my story. Your patience has been appreciated :) **

**Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review! **

**~Rockwriter **


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